With the Blue Diamond Preludes scheduled for Caulfield this Saturday there are still two live chances for the $1million Patinack Farm bonus.

The bonus is for any horse that can win a Blue Diamond Preview, Blue Diamond Prelude and the Blue Diamond Stakes.

Winners of the Previews -- Sepoy and One Last Dance -- are backing up and if they are successful again it will make the grand final even more interesting.

My fancy on Saturday, though, is the Tim Martin-trained Anevay. She went down narrowly to One Last Dance in the fillies Preview and I think she'll not only turn the tables this Saturday, but may go on to win the Blue Diamond and is an enticing proposition for the Golden Slipper at $35 TAB Sportsbet Fixed Odds.

The feature event of the weekend is the Group One CF Orr Stakes at Caulfield and I am banking on that gallant mare Ortensia bouncing back as a winner.

It has been a while between drinks, to coin a phrase, because her latest win was the Winterbottom Stakes in Perth during November, 2009. Well, she won the Galaxy at Randwick in April last year but was stripped of the win because of a swab irregularity.

At her latest start Ortensia wasn't disgraced when fourth in the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley on January 28 and I think the 1400 metres will be ideal for this bonny mare.

*****

SUCCESSFUL and sometimes controversial jockey Mel Schumacher once recited to me of an old-fashioned adage: "Old dogs for a hard road - puppies for the footpath".

It fitted the Shoe, a sensational young jockey whose career was fractured severely by the infamous Blue Era AJC Derby leg-pull, but then he bounced back from 10 years on the sidelines.

There is an interesting parallel with the present-day provocative prince of the pigskin, Jim Cassidy.

Like Schumacher, Cassidy has boundless talent as a horseman but he is prone to hit a few hurdles.

But, he also has that endearing quality of being able to bounce off the canvas with a beaming smile reminiscent of an Elly Bennett.

Despite his recent fall from grace with a positive test to marijuana and a three-month suspension, he was back pumping out winners with the aplomb of a much younger rider.

A double last Saturday was further evidence that it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

Many times Cassidy may have been tempted to think life was a bitch but he always has managed to rebound as top dog.

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THE Canberra Racing Club has copped a double whammy with its feature race day, the Black Opal Stakes on Sunday, March 13.

The NRL has landed a stiff arm on the club by programming a Canberra Raiders versus Sharks game at Canberra Stadium for 2pm on Black Opal Stakes day, which effectively may divide the attendance at both events.

And the set weights and penalties conditions of the Black Opal Stakes has effectively robbed the club of its drawcard, the locally-trained Karuta Queen.

Karuta Queen, as the winner of the Magic Millions, will be penalised 2kg as a winner of a race worth more than $200,000 to the winner and her weight would be lifted to 56 kgs, the same as the colts and gelding. Not surprisingly, trainer Neville Layt is likely to seek another race for his flying filly.

But what about the anomaly? Prizemoney from the Magic Millions doesn't help a horse qualify for the Golden Slipper but the same stakes earn a horse a penalty!

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RECENTLY a woman was elevated to the position of editor of a Sydney morning newspaper and one of her comments was: "I never think of myself as a woman - I think of myself as a journalist."

A laudable line but what has that got to do with racing?

It raises the issue of women jockeys and why should they be depicted in the formguides and race fields as Ms K. O'Hara, Ms M Payne etc.

No doubt they would agree that they don't think of themselves as women but as JOCKEYS!