Winning Post

This week in Winning Post

This week's Winning Post will be available online here from 3pm AEST Thursday.

One of the great weekends on the Australian sporting calendar is upon us, with the AFL grand final, the NRL preliminary finals and Group 1 racing in two cities.

Rosehill is the venue in Sydney on Saturday for the Golden Rose and Golden Pendant, with Guest House shooting to become the first colt to complete the Golden Slipper/Golden Rose double.

Saturday's Melbourne racing is at Mornington, where the listed Ansett Classic is the feature.

Queensland metro action is at Toowoomba for the Weetwood Handicap while it's Westspeed Spring Final day at Belmont.

The Group 1 action rolls into Sunday with The Valley's meeting at Caulfield, where the Manikato Stakes is the headliner. Plus there's a Cox Plate golden ticket up for grabs in the Feehan Stakes. The Stutt, the Stocks, the Testa Rossa, the Jim Moloney and the Bob Scarborough make for a cracking undercard.

Our form coverage kicks off on Friday with a full form guide for The Valley meeting at Cranbourne (plus Coleraine in the Vic/SA edition and Launceston in the Tassie edition), plus fields, colours and tips for the other Friday TAB meetings.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Sandown in Melbourne, Rosehill in Sydney, Murray Bridge in SA, Toowoomba in Queensland and Belmont in Perth.

Winning Post carries full-colour liftout guides for all those meetings plus Kembla Grange (NSW edition) and Gold Coast (Qld edition), as well as fields, tips, ratings and/or colours for other TAB Saturday cards.

On Sunday we've got liftout formguides for Manikato Stakes day at Caulfield and Dubbo Cup day.

Don't forget Winning Post now carries trackwork reports for all four Melbourne training tracks, all three in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide and a general Brisbane report.

The printed edition ($7) is in shops first thing Friday morning.

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Under starter's orders .................................................................................................................................................

Download the calendar .................................................................................................................................................

Tasmania: Imogen in form on both sides of strait .................................................................................................................................................

Western Victoria: Beaten, but give Olive another chance .................................................................................................................................................

Wimmera: Boulderoo swoops for in-form Bobbin .................................................................................................................................................

More Stories

Inside Winning Post September 19 edition you'll find liftout form guides for:

Friday:

Cranbourne, Coleraine (Vic/SA edition), Launceston (Tas edition)

Saturday:

Sandown, Rosehill, Murray Bridge, Toowoomba, Belmont, Kembla Grange (NSW edition), Gold Coast (Qld edition)

Sunday:

Caulfield, Dubbo

Eye Catchers

Each week Paul Richards identifies horses from recent race meetings that he believes are ready to win. Here we update you when they are about to have their next start.

Newcastle Friday - R7 N9 I'mintowin 2nd

Caulfield Saturday - R5 N5 Wolf Gap 4th

Caulfield Saturday - R7 N4 Pinstriped 6th

Caulfield Saturday - R6 N12 Photograph 6th

Caulfield Saturday - R8 N14 Zahrann 1st

Royal Randwick Saturday - R5 N10 Matcha Latte 2nd

Royal Randwick Saturday - R4 N6 Stealth Of Night 4th

Royal Randwick Saturday - R4 N11 Fundamental Nature 8th

Royal Randwick Saturday - R8 N1 Ceolwulf 3rd

Royal Randwick Saturday - R8 N2 Gringotts 5th

Royal Randwick Saturday - R10 N13 She's An Artist 2nd

Results

Letter of the Week

Golden opportunity

Is there a more destructively programmed race than the Golden Eagle on the Australian calendar?
We now face the ludicrous situation where the spring program of one of our most exciting horses is likely to read 1400m, 1600m, 2000m, 1500m.
No one could begrudge the stable for targeting the Golden Eagle with Sheza Alibi. As Peter Moody has stated, it’s a matter of simple economics.
Not only is the Golden Eagle’s first prize $1.65 million greater than that for the Cox Plate, it’s a restricted race.
There’ll be no Sir Delius and co to worry about.
So they’d be mad not to go for it, but it’s ruining our best race.
It would be like Gout Gout skipping the Olympics because he could make more money winning the under-18 worlds.
Who knows if Sheza Alibi and the other top-class four-year-olds will still be in training in 12 months’ time?
As for the prospect of any horse matching Winx’s four-timer, forget it.
This state of affairs is exhibit 164 in the case for a national racing body with control of the calendar.
The Golden Eagle is a great race. It just needs to be run on Golden Rose day.

Robbie Worth
Richmond (Vic)