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Victorian visitor looking to pull off seldom-achieved feat in Perth feature.
There is little doubt about who the 'best' horse in Saturday's $1.5 million Group 1 Railway Stakes at Ascot in Perth.
Tuvalu is one of only two Group 1 winners in the race, along with defending champion Trix Of The Trade, and is clearly the best-performed runner on the Timeform scale.
He won last year's Toorak Handicap (1600m) in 116, but ran 121 when second to Alligator Blood in the Champions Mile (1600m).
The six-year-old almost matched that mark two starts ago when second to the same horse in the Underwood Stakes in 120, while he ran 118 when third behind Prowess and Antino last start in the Group 2 Crystal Mile (1600m) at The Valley.
Those figures are all greater than the best Timeform rating returned by any of his Railway Stakes rivals, which is Marocchino's 116.
At level weights, Lindsey Smith's son of Kermadec would be a raging favourite but instead he has to carry 58kg topweight in the handicap event, which is only 1kg more than Marocchino but at least 4kg more than all other runners.
It is not unprecedented for a horse to win Perth's signature race with 58kg, but it is not something that has been done regularly of late.
Of the five to have carried at least 58kg to victory in the 1600m event, only Luckygray – who won his second Railway under 58kg in 2013 – has achieved it since 1928.
Since metrics were introduced in 1972, 42 horses have run in the Railway Stakes with 57kg or more with three second placings and three thirds to go with Luckygray's win.
The second placegetters – Black Heart Bart (59kg, 2017), Luckygray (58kg, 2012) and Sir Goglio (59kg, 1972) – did it with at least 58kg.
The Railway Stakes has been dominated by horses at the foot of the weights in the post-Luckygray era.
Elite Belle (2014) and Great Shot (2017) both won it under 53.5kg, which was 0.5kg above the limit, with the remaining winners all carrying 53kg.
Lightweights being to the fore hasn't stopped punters working out the Railway with Great Shot ($31) the only winner longer than $10 since 2014 with the favourite winning the past three; Trix Of The Trade ($5), Western Empire ($1.60) and Inspirational Girl ($2.60).
Inspirational Girl is one of five mares to have won the Railway Stakes since 2005 and a couple of five-year-old girls are battling it out for favouritism with Tuvalu ahead of this year's edition.
The Chris Waller-trained Roots will carry 54kg and Grant and Alana Williams' Alsephina 53kg, the bulk of which will be made up by Willie Pike, who is the most successful jockey in Railway Stakes history with five wins.
