NEALE DONNELLEY previews the four feature races from Royal Randwick this weekend:
Group 2 $200,000 THE SHORTS (1100m):
DEFENDING Everest champion REDZEL looks like dominating his rivals in tomorrow’s The Shorts at Randwick.
Run over 1100-metres, The Shorts is 100-metres short of the Everest distance which should suit the Team Snowden-trained REDZEL perfectly.
Following two solid trials in August, REDZEL resumed with an impressive first-up win in the Group 3 $160,000 Concorde Stakes (1100m) at Randwick two weeks ago.
The natural progression was to go to The Shorts and the latest TAB market has him marked a hot $1.80 favourite.
He heads the market from fellow Everest runners INVINCIBLE STAR ($5.00), ENGLISH ($5.50) and BRAVE SMASH ($8.50).
This year’s renewal of The Shorts has very strong depth, including BALL OF MUSCLE ($9.50), a last start winner of the Group 3 $150,000 The Heath (1100m) at Caulfield.
The veteran speedster led throughout to impressively beat Voodoo Lad and Brave Smash.
Regular rider Kerrin McEvoy will be able to make his own way in this race given he’s drawn perfectly in barrier three, with The Monstar and Invincible Star drawn on his inside.
REDZEL is already a $5.00 favourite for the $13 million The Everest on October 13 and that might ‘crunch’ a little if he comes out and dominates this intriguing edition of The Shorts.
Group 1 $500,000 COLGATE OPTIC WHITE STAKES. (1600m).
THE mighty WINX and breaking records seem to go hand in hand these days.
When the remarkable mare lines up in tomorrow’s Group 1 $500,000 Colgate Optic White Stakes (formerly the George Main Stakes), she will break a few more records.
It will be consecutive win number 27 and she would become the first horse to win the George Main Stakes three years running.
If successful it would be eight consecutive Group 1 wins from her past eight starts.
We’ve run out of words to describe WINX and her racetrack deeds. Suffice to say the latest TAB market has her an almost ‘unbackable’ $1.10 favourite.
There are only eight runners in this significant Group 1 contest but the competition for the mighty mare is strong and deep.
Throw in Caulfield Cup hopefuls UNFORGOTTEN ($11) and EGG TART ($19), outstanding galloper LE ROMAIN ($12), Derby winner and Cups hopeful ACE HIGH (21) and you have the makings of a stunning Group 1 race.
But, the problem for them all is trying to work out how to beat WINX.
She is invariably too fast when it counts at the finish and the wide open spaces at Randwick are perfect for her.
The best thing to do with WINX, as a racing fan, is to just sit back, watch and enjoy her rare talent.
Group 2 $200,000 TEA ROSE STAKES. (1400m).
NOW we go from one betting extreme to the other.
While Winx is a prohibitive favourite in her race, the fillies in the Group 2 Tea Rose appear to be of similar ability, thus the market is incredibly wide.
It’s $6.00 the field in the latest TAB offering headed by John O’Shea’s PRETTY IN PINK.
Group 1 Sires Produce winner EL DORADO DREAMING and G2 Silver Shadow Stakes winner FIESTA are on the second line of betting at $6.50.
Australia’s best maiden OOHOOD ($7.00) is next best with the blue-blood MISS FABULASS ($8.50) on the next line.
They and a few others could all win the race given the right ride and the right run.
These fillies Stakes races are always tough and this is the ultimate example.
The value runners might be MADAM ROUGE ($9.50) and MISS FABULASS ($8.50).
MADAM ROUGE has won two of her three starts, the latest first-up at Canterbury in a restricted Benchmark 71, but she was very impressive and ran fast time.
MISS FABULASS, by the mighty Frankel and out of former champion filly Samantha Miss, looked a run short when she ran sixth in the Group 2 Furious Stakes second-up.
Expect a big improvement from her now she will be fitter, the race is a further 200-metres and the barrier draw is perfect.
Group 3 $160,000 Kingston Town Stakes. (2000M)
THIS Kingston Town Stakes could have a significant effect on many of the important staying races, including the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups later in the Spring.
More than half the runners hold nominations in the Cups including the top-weight BIG DUKE, who ran a brave fourth behind Rekinkling in last year’s Melbourne Cup.
The amazing depth and quality in leading trainer Chris Waller’s staying ranks is on display in this race, given he has nine runners.
The fact eight of them are from overseas tells you a story about his theory with staying horses and just where the best stayers come from.
LIBRAN, an Irish-bred import who has been in Australia for a long time now, is one of Waller’s team literally flying.
He’s had two runs back from a break where he has finished a closing eighth behind Winx in the G1 Winx Stakes, before flashing home when third in the G2 Chelmsford.
He might be an eight-year-old but tell him that!
And, he just happens to be the defending Kingston Town Stakes winner heading into this year’s strong renewal of the race, named after a true immortal of the Australian turf.
Godolphin’s AVILIUS ($2.30) has been marked a short-priced favourite off the back of his stunning win last start in the G3 Premier’s Cup, when an odds-on favourite.
He does look very good and in France he was placed three times in Group 2 races.
Clearly AVILIUS will be hard to hold out late, as too will in-form mare SEDANZER and ‘old’ LIBRAN might just make it back-to-back Kingston Town’s with the right luck.
ENDS