What a week, a week where racing fans are suffering from attention overload and the punters nerves of steel have been tested.
There’s been Derby Day, Cup Day, Oaks Day and every other sort of day in between.
It doesn’t stop here.
The final day of the carnival concludes with the running of the Mackinnon Stakes, which is now worth $2million and has cemented itself as a true Group One event.
ARCADIA QUEEN is one of my favourite horses and is clearly the one to beat. She’s a complete duffer on a soft track, so take no notice of her last start failure on Cox Plate day. Before that she was tremendous winning the Caulfield Stakes and is super honest. Shout The Bar recaptured her best form last start and remains the danger. Watch out for both.
The other major is the $1.5million Darley Sprint.
The Everest might seem a long time ago, but that form should hold up again for Bivouac who will have too much class for his rivals down the straight.
The Godolphin trained galloper was a fast finishing second in the Everest, having won the Newmarket earlier this year and clearly loves Flemington.
Super Saturday at Flemington racecourse
Rosehill Gardens:
The million dollar races just keep on coming in Sydney, the Golden Gift is worth a cool million dollars for the two-year-olds at Rosehill Gardens.
Hard to line-up all the form from different states here, plus it’s a rain affected track.
Sneaky Five is up from Melbourne, Ghostwriter is down from Brisbane, but I’ll stick with Captivant, who’s trained by the Snowden’s and was pretty impressive winning his only start at Randwick.
Finally at Rosehill, good luck to Kim Waugh who has three runners all with a great chance, White Boots (Race 1), Oxford Tycoon (Race 8) and Trajection (Race 9), all three handle soft ground which will be a necessity come race time.
Kim wants to train for the NSW Tycoons in The Racing League, check out her pitch video here.
Perth:
The Perth carnival is officially underway and will very quickly be in the spotlight.
The feature is the Group 2 Weight For Age, Lee Steere Stakes, which is an important lead-up to some big races coming up.
KEMENTARI has always been known as a horse with enormous ability but a “money muncher” as far as favourite backers are concerned.
RED CAN MAN loves the Ascot circuit and looks the one with in-form Shaun McGruddy in the saddle.
Enjoy the weekend.
Terry Kennedy