Overview
Bluish Hue is the best bet on Saturday because the horse keeps turning up: four runs in the past 90 days, four placings, and a Class 2 win at Rosehill last start with Nash Rawiller, who stays on for the Highway at Randwick.
That makes three selections from two meetings, Randwick and Eagle Farm. Two of them carry live prices. The third, Proxima Dea in the Spring Champion Stakes, sits in a race whose market wasn’t open when this was written, so she comes without a price.
The best bet
Bluish Hue, Randwick Race 2, 12:45, 2.70 with Neds.
The Dunn runner has been busy this spring and hasn’t let anyone down, placing in all four runs over the past 90 days and finishing that sequence by winning a Class 2 over 1500m at Rosehill on 26 September. The Highway is a Class 3 over 1600m, so the extra 100m is the only new question, and the form has been building through the distances.
Rawiller is the other reason to be on. He leads Saturday’s Randwick riders with 20 wins from 122 rides at the track and places on nearly half of them.
Wolf Island is the danger. Two wins at Goulburn in September, then a fourth at 70/1 in a Rosehill Highway, which read better than the price. If it steps up again, it can make the favourite work.
The value bet
Amelioration, Eagle Farm Race 2, 11:53, 12.00 with Bet Right.
She has won her last two, a C1 over 1800m on 25 September and a C2 over 2200m on 9 October, both at the Sunshine Coast. She was entered there again on Friday before that meeting was abandoned, so she arrives fresh for the Benchmark 70 over 2200m.
Anna Roper’s claim brings her in at 53.5kg, and on a heavy track that light weight counts. A horse on a winning run rarely gets in this light, and 12.00 is a generous price for that profile.
The step up in grade is the question, and Trusty Bandit is the horse who answers it, having won a BM68 at Eagle Farm on 14 October, eight days after a win at Kilcoy, and has three wins from eight starts in the past 90 days. Our Eagle Farm preview has Trusty Bandit on top, so treat Amelioration as the price play rather than the likeliest winner.
The quaddie angle
Proxima Dea, Randwick Race 7, 4:00.
The Spring Champion Stakes opens the Randwick quaddie, and Proxima Dea is the one to build it around. She has won her last four. The run started at Randwick in July over 1400m and went through Gosford and a Rosehill Benchmark 72 before she won the Gloaming Stakes over 1800m two weeks ago, beating Wonka and Scarole.
Each rise in distance has brought a better run, and she gets the fillies’ allowance against the colts. David Payne and Zac Lloyd have two wins and four placings from six rides together, the Gloaming among them.
Wonka is the danger, two from two at Randwick, including the Dulcify Stakes on 3 October, with placings in all five runs in the past 90 days. The extra 200m and that comfort at the track are the only things that could turn the Gloaming around.
How these were picked
All three come from the full previews for Saturday’s ten meetings: Flemington, Randwick, Eagle Farm, Ascot, Morphettville, Kembla Grange, Toowoomba, Fannie Bay, Charleville and Gympie.
Price decided a lot of this. Only the early races at Flemington, Randwick, Eagle Farm, Morphettville and Kembla Grange were priced when this was written, so the strong unpriced NAPs, including Jigsaw at Flemington, Get Ready Lass at Eagle Farm and Truly Loyal at Ascot, missed the best and value slots for want of a market.
Ice Kool, 2.30 in the Flemington opener, was the closest priced alternative for the best bet, but Bluish Hue‘s run of placings is the sounder case. The country NAPs at Charleville, Gympie and Fannie Bay had good course records but thinner form behind them.