The Chris Waller Group 1 assault marches onwards to Oaks day. The rose filled arches of Eagle Farm are in full blossom as we put aside another week of track concerns for a great day of Racing.
The track will be a Good 3, the rail out 2m and the stars in town.
We're going to jump straight Race 8 - Queensland Oaks and into an extensive preview to help jag the winner.
The questions is really who stands up to beat the Chris Waller army? He's represented with 6 runners all who have been seen in Queensland this preparation. The form seems to be through through the top 3 seeds, Only Words went home best in the Group 2 'The Roses' at Doomben from a fast finishing Bargain and stable mate Charms Star, it could be said Grace And Harmony was the unlucky runner from the barrier that day and has turned her luck around by drawing the 3 this week. Splendiferous looks the likely leader in this field, with Only Words and Easifer to push across from the wider draw. With the lack of speed does it mean horses like Duais, Media Award and Bargain struggle to produce a turn of foot to come over the top? Or does that ATC Oaks form simple stack up better than those Chris Waller 'horses of the moment', regardless of the result I don't think we'll be spruiking these fillies over the next couple of years in our major cups.
Throughout the rest of the card we have 4 Listed Races and a Group 2 on display from the home of racing, Queensland.
Prince of Arragon goes around as favourite in the opening contest after a super impressive win last start. The Mugs money came for him this day and with a slight swing in the weights to Cellarmaid's advantage it will be interesting to see how the market react closer to the jump.
The listed 'Phoenix' is here for it's second showing with some of these horses potentially targetting a JJ Atkins start next week. The interesting runner is Tutukaka, the half to NZ champ Melody Belle, he'll certainly relish the step up to the 1500m, whether he has the class? Outside of the favourites, form lines come from everywhere for a chaotic 2YO event worth a handy $72K to the winner.
The QTIS bonus attracts a field of horses who have simply not been able to capture their best form. Red Bloom from the Sears yard (Purchase a share in La Ready Rosa with the Mugs to vibe with them) brings the best recent record! But the step into a city class race is the obvious question. From the draw, Mishani Hustler and Boomsara look to set a genuine tempo which really brings horses like Red Chase and Macewen right into calculations.
Crowd favorite Boomtown Lass returns in Race 4, over the 1000m looks incredibly hard to hold out despite the wide draw.
We get to the Moreton Cup, which is a Group 2 in it's own right but more importantly is the final chance for some aspiring Stradbroke hopefuls. The locals saddle up Stampe, Baller and Scallopini and with Godolphin declaring no Stradbroke runners, Varda becomes all the more interesting of a watch. The speed will be on with Splintex looking to finally catch a decent draw and map but ultimately it's grand final day for a lot of these horses before they even consider a Stradbroke birth.
Race 6 & 7 kick off the quaddie with an absolute headache of fields, find your favourite colour, pick your favourite number, do whatever the opposite it is you would normally do because we could have some wild results. Groundswell deserves favoritism in R6 and Lloydy is gonna be slurpin all morning for the big boy BUT Nudge doesn't deserve any attention, we've already said to much.
A cracker ends the day for us in the Get Out Stakes. Dez is up and about with Apache Chase knocking off some wannabe BM85 hack last week and in a years time we could be talking about Georgie's Pride sneaking into a Stradbroke. Heartbreak horse Kisukano has finally shown us glimpses of that #ROTHFIREFORM and look to have the market between themselves, both love Eagle Farm, both love the trip, both love a good track. The Mugs are calling a dead heat in the last!
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Here's the Mugs picks for a cracker day of racing.
#MozzasMustHave R1 Prince of Arragon
#BeansBanger R9 Georgie’s Pride
#LloydysLock R6 Groundswell
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