3 minute read

It is finally here – Day 1 of The Championships – and you can’t get a better lot of fields featuring four superb G1s.

It's hard to know where to look given the amount of elite horses but the Newcastle 3yo Sky Lab is a huge chance in the Australian Derby and we'll make him the best.

The Tulloch Stakes has been the race the last four years but that looks very doubtful as the right form given the bunched finish on a leader's track with a 200-1 shot beaten under 2L.

Is the New Zealand Derby also the right race this year as the three placegetters were a head apart and the beaten two have run below par here since?

That gets back to the Rosehill Guineas and with the winner running in the Doncaster, happy to backing the runner up who made a long run and was just headed.

That one is bred to love the mile and a half and the wet track which will prevail in some capacity suits him to a tee. He is a lovely stayer in the making.

Betting on the race has been going for a long while and he's been so solid the entire week suggesting he could be the one backed on Saturday.

Onto the value play and in the TJ Smith Stakes, there are quality horses galore with much of it based around those who will be contesting the front.

No one doubts Nature Strip, Eduardo and Bivouac will be commanding much attention before the jump and through the run.

But one who has had it quiet all week is the filly September Run and she is great odds with the light weight.

The Coolmore Stud Stakes winner was superb first up in the Lightning, just behind Nature Strip and well in front of Bivouac. Then things went skewiff in the Newmarket.

No hope on a biased track at the Valley, she was wide and flashed home and the gap between runs is perfect.

She will be out the back minding her own business but if they are swooping, her finish will be hard to hold out.

At double figures, she is a top play both totes.

SYDNEY SPECIALS

BET OF THE DAY: Race 7 #3 Sky Lab @ $5.00

EACH WAY PLAY: Race 8 #11 September Run @ $11.00