Winners For Randwick Guineas/Australian Guineas Day

It’s dual Guineas day this Saturday with the Randwick Guineas being run at Royal Randwick & the Australian Guineas being run at Flemington.

Randwick was rated a Good 4 on Thursday and with fine weather in Sydney, the Randwick Guineas meeting will be held on a Good track on raceday.

Flemington was rated a Good 3 on Thursday. The forecast will be for fine weather over the next couple of days in Melbourne and Flemington will be racing on a Good surface on raceday.

Headwater will justify & confirm his favouritism for the Golden Slipper Stakes in Saturday’s Todman Stakes (Sydney Race 2, 1200m). The Team Hawkes-trained colt won the Silver Slipper brilliantly last start leading from start to finish. He shown good acceleration in the last 400m of his races and that would put him in good stead in a race like the Golden Slipper. On Saturday, I believe Blake Shinn will employ the same tactic and take Headwater straight to the lead and the others will not be able to catch him at the finish.

In a very open race in the Aspiration Quality (Sydney Race 5, 1600m), I am sticking with the class horse ‘Solicit’. Her record over the mile (2 placings from 6 starts) may not look good, but considered the 2 runs over the trip last Spring (beaten only 2.75 lengths in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap & beaten 1.6 lengths in the Group 1 Myer Classic), Solicit shows she’s a class above this field. From the lovely gate (barrier 5), Hugh Bowman will be able to settle just behind the pace and give the mare every chance to win the race. Currently at $6.00 fixed odds, Solicit is a pretty good value bet.

Only seven horses have accepted for the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (Sydney Race 6, 1600m) but what a field it is as they are all top notch 3YOs. The Cummings-trained Hallowed Crown has beaten a similar field 1st up in the Hobartville Stakes (1400m), showing his toughness when he was under pressure and looked beaten in the straight.  The Golden Rose winner has never been beaten 2nd up winning 2 from 2 and from barrier 1, Bowman will have a lot of options on where to settle the colt. Hallowed Crown is my pick in a difficult race.

The Chris Waller-trained Kermadec ran a blinder 2nd up to be just beaten by Hallowed Crown in the Hobartville Stakes. Kermadec won over this course & distance last Spring in the Group 3 Carbine Club Stakes and his other run over this trip resulted for a close 2nd at Randwick just before his Carbine Club victory. Waller has reported that Kermadec is fit & well and has trained on well since the Hobartville. Champion jockey Nash Rawiller will return from Hong Kong to ride Kermadec this weekend. Kermadec is the horse they’ll all have to beat in the Australian Guineas (Melbourne Race 7, 1600m).

By Owens Wong, Editor

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