The Apollo Stakes meeting will be held at Royal Randwick this Saturday. The course proper was rated a Good 4 on Thursday and with fine weather leading up to the weekend, Randwick will be racing on a Good track on raceday.
The C.F. Orr Stakes meeting will be held at Caulfield on Saturday. The course proper was rated a Good 3 and fine weather has been forecast for the next couple of days for Melbourne so Caulfield is likely to remain in the Good range on raceday.
The Team Snowden-trained Kangarilla Joy can continue her winning way in the Light Fingers Stakes (Sydney Race 3, 1200m). The Lonhro filly has won both starts over 1100m this preparation, and stepping up to 1200m 3rd up looks ideal. Hugh Bowman will take over the rein on Saturday and from barrier 6, Kangarilla Joy will settle just behind the leaders and she’ll be ready to pounce in the straight.
Boss Lane prefers a firm track to show his best and he’ll get condition to suit on Saturday and be primed to take out the Southern Cross Stakes (Sydney Race 5, 1200m). The Ron Quinton-trained gelding won well last start in the Summer Sprint over 1000m. Stepping up to 1200m suits even better as 5 of his 7 career victories came from six furlong races. Sam Clipperton will be back on board after missing his last start victory and he’ll settle Boss Lane somewhere mid-field from barrier 6. Currently Boss Lane is at pretty good odds at $5.50 in the fixed odds market.
Mossin’ Around is the form horse in the Kevin Hayes Stakes (Melbourne Race 2, 1200m) and she is the horse they all have to beat. The Mossman filly has only had 3 career starts but has never finished worse than 2nd. She ran a mighty 2nd last start to the very promising Hellbent, beaten only one length in the Inglis Dash. They pretty much ran away from the field beating the third horse (Geoff) by 4 lengths. Race favourite Risque will be resuming from a spell on Saturday and will be Mossin’ Around’s major opposition, but she has never won 1st up on two attempts. Mossin’ Around will breakthrough for her first win in Melbourne in the Kevin Hayes Stakes.
The Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes (Melbourne Race 7, 1400m) signals the beginning of the Autumn Carnival and will be the kick-off point for plenty of Group 1 winners, including Turn Me Loose. New Zealand raider Turn Me Loose won three mile races in a row before his spell culminating to his Group 1 victory in the Emirates Stakes. The Murray Baker-trained 4YO has only ever missed a place once in 11 career stakes and he can handle any track conditions. His regular rider Opie Bosson will take Turn Me Loose straight to the lead and try to run them ragged. He’ll be hard to catch.
By Owens Wong, Editor
