2024 120m Womens Ballarat Gift

Ballarat Poll

Normally look for the Ballarat people to bob up and have a crack at this. Halle Martin was good at Shep and will no doubt try to take out her home gift, as will Talia and Grace OD, but I dont think theyll be in the mix.

Matzer is one backmarker to watch, haven't thought about her as a contender yet, but her performances last year suggest she wouldn't be out of it. Robbo is also bringing Lythgo and Rutherford for another crack at it, will they go better this time around?

Whittingham, Kelly and Keratianos are all great backmarkers and will be pushing for a spot in the final.

Burmeister will be the one again if she turns up this week. Like I mentioned last week, if she wins this week, she could move into favoritism for Easter.

Spenceley and Barry should final again

I wonder if Crisp runs this one! Time is running out, but I wonder if this week or next week is the goal.

Matzer  2nd
Whittingham
Keratianos
Lythgo  3rd
Burmeister  1st
Rutherford
Barry
H.Martin
(Crisp to not run)

Two Ballarat young girls off novice. Crowe and Anderson. Crowe was very convincing coming 2nd to Watson last weekend

Ahhh very good quickness, I knew I’d let one slip through.
Crowe was super last weekend, didn’t look very tall on Kayo either, I’m guessing she’s still got a lot of improving to do??
Maybe next year, Ballarat can bring back another Stawell gift sash to Lake Wendouree.
Should make the final though!!

Shilitto and Martin for the Ballarat quinella

Matzer had 2.75 at stawell and ran 13.86, she’s now been gifted 3.5, she’s been handicapped to go around 13.77, how does that work, absolutely set up for 2025 stawell gift after mannix power is the goer this year. What’s going on ?!

Pick of the yard is Ruby Crisp. I think we’ll see crisp prevail this week with daylight coming second.

Matzer
Crowe 3rd
Burmeister 2nd
Spenceley
Barry
Martin
Crisp 1st
Nobbs

Grace Kelly
Armani Anderson
Grace Crowe 3rd
Stephanie Rutherford
Scarlett Burmeister
Olivia Barry
Halle Martin 2nd
Ruby Crisp 1st (if she runs)

Spenceley or Charleigh Allen to make the final if Crisp is a scratching

This is a tough race to assess, very strong entries. Will any of the 5 gift winners from this season line up here? If they do, Watson, King and Carter will be in the mix, but I doubt they will run.
Top Chances for mine are:
A. Anderson
O. Barry
R. Crisp 2nd
G. Crowe 1st
T. Inall-bejah
H. Martin
O. Matzer
A. Spenceley
E. Whittingham 3rd

Hmmm is it bad I want a lot of these girls to go fast tomorrow???

Hope Crispy breaks the clock and tops off what has already been a great season for her. Hopefully a 13.5, which suggests she may be a decent runner off the 11m limit.
Dont want to see Crowe’s mark ruined though! What a great talent. Would love to see her at Stawell next year off 6m+

Whittingham
Crowe  2nd
Watson
Lythgo
Rutherford
H.Martin  3rd
Jinks
Crisp   1st

Crisp will win by panels and probably has another win in her this season but she won’t be running at Stawell off 11m this season. Would think she would target maybe the 400m.

Norm the Form wrote:Hmmm is it bad I want a lot of these girls to go fast tomorrow???

Hope Crispy breaks the clock and tops off what has already been a great season for her. Hopefully a 13.5, which suggests she may be a decent runner off the 11m limit.
Dont want to see Crowe’s mark ruined though! What a great talent. Would love to see her at Stawell next year off 6m+

Whittingham
Crowe  2nd
Watson
Lythgo
Rutherford
H.Martin  3rd
Jinks
Crisp   1st

Trifecta for Norm $$$

A well deserved win for Ruby Crisp. She demolished a good field.

What happened to Layla Watson in the Semi?? I thought she must have pulled up sore, but later, on the live stream I watched her run well in the 400m Final.

Definitely well deserved for Crisp. She ‘held off’ a good field. A demolition is deserving of a run like Sherman from 1m.
What a great addition Grace Crowe has been in the past two meetings. Has to be included in favouritism odds for Easter with a ceiling time run in final.
Not entered at Keilor, but hopefully we’ll see her take a win at Castlemaine or Bendigo.
Crisp could be in line to win again, with a potential 2m hcp reduction she still has a good buffer from Martin and Henderson who are also entered.

Am I the only one that saw the SIGNIFICANT break in the women's gift final?!?

donatello wrote:Am I the only one that saw the SIGNIFICANT break in the women's gift final?!?

I agree, very obvious.

Black and maybe Yellow as well.

Dunno if it would have changed the result but it would have made it interesting if Crisp banged her blocks back in a metre back. Would have given Crowe a real sniff. Good luck to Ruby but she got away with one there

Easier Said Than Run wrote:Definitely well deserved for Crisp. She ‘held off’ a good field. A demolition is deserving of a run like Sherman from 1m.  
What a great addition Grace Crowe has been in the past two meetings. Has to be included in favouritism odds for Easter with a ceiling time run in final.
Not entered at Keilor, but hopefully we’ll see her take a win at Castlemaine or Bendigo.
Crisp could be in line to win again, with a potential 2m hcp reduction she still has a good buffer from Martin and Henderson who are also entered.

I think if I have calculated this correctly, Crisp will get 3m (2m to get her back under Ceiling Time), then the further 1m minimum penalty for the win yesterday. Even with this, she will still be in the mix for another win this season if the improvement continues each time she runs.

Norm the Form wrote:

Norm the Form wrote:Hmmm is it bad I want a lot of these girls to go fast tomorrow???

Hope Crispy breaks the clock and tops off what has already been a great season for her. Hopefully a 13.5, which suggests she may be a decent runner off the 11m limit.
Dont want to see Crowe’s mark ruined though! What a great talent. Would love to see her at Stawell next year off 6m+

Whittingham
Crowe  2nd
Watson
Lythgo
Rutherford
H.Martin  3rd
Jinks
Crisp   1st

Trifecta for Norm $$$

2nd times a charm hey Norm. It’s a bit easier after the heats. Somebody got the box trifecta before the heats

Congratulations to Crisp on her win.

But one question I have to ask is, how has Crisp and many other girls moved to a handicap of 16m at such young ages? Having a look at Crisp's historical results she has gone from the novice 6m to 10m by her 7th start, and reached 16m by her 19th start. Regardless of how many starts she has had, or the times she has run, that seems like a big (somewhat unfair) jump.

I understand that the womens races have required adjusting with the likes of Lewis, Masters, Gross, Basic etc all being involved... but it still seems relatively unfair. Happy to be educated on how this is fair if anyone wants to shed light on this scenario.

Not that I completely disagreee with you Run Run Run, but I think her mark was probably a result of the start/ceiling times getting quicker and quicker. I’m guessing that when she had a mark of around 10-12, the women’s start time was 14.2. Then went to 14.0, and now 13.9. As well as various ticks and lifts, she has worked her mark out to 16m+. Seems way too big but when the start times change, you cannot lift only a portion of the field and leave others behind. Ruby has just been one of many benefactors.

Hope that clarifies it. And I’m sure this wont be the last winner that benefitted from this system.

Peter Pan wrote:Matzer had 2.75 at stawell and ran 13.86, she’s now been gifted 3.5, she’s been handicapped to go around 13.77, how does that work, absolutely set up for 2025 stawell gift after mannix power is the goer this year. What’s going on ?!

The 1m lift relates to the change in ceiling time from 13.9 to 13.80. This was common practice across a large number of the established and OGA girls for their first run.

Ceiling is 13.9 Robbo

Isn't ceiling 13.70 for Women as of October 2023? 13.90 for starting time? Or I'm reading the Handicap regs wrong...

https://www.val.org.au/Portals/0/Documents/Regulations/VAL%20HANDICAP%20REGULATIONS%20FINAL%20-%20OCT%202023.pdf?ver=vnD8yjbSF4CHInsBKMCmwg%3d%3d

Sorry yes, start time is 13.9 and ceiling is 13.7.

Either way Robbo is wrong