As we close in on some key features for the WA autumn racing season, racing begins to heat up at Ascot with two Listed events as well as the Rock Magic Stakes honouring the great champ.
We'll cover the Rock Magic Stakes a little more further down, but hopefully we'll get a clearer picture of the juvenile hierarchy come Saturday afternoon in the Supremacy Stakes.
With mixing form and different winners from one week to the next, it's hard to pin down an early pick for the Karrakatta Plate in just a month's time.
Onemoretwomany, Angels Impact and Sinful Living all come into the Supremacy tied with a peak rating of 93 with Racing and Sports (Glasgow Lass also 93), only behind Golden Vale and Big Shots on 97.
Neville Parnham's charge will give weight to his rivals on Saturday afternoon in a race that poses plenty of questions going in, which (hopefully) a few will be answered coming out.
In the Rock Magic Stakes (race 6), I'm very keen on WILD BELLE out of the Luke Fernie barn.
The daughter of Pride Of Dubai hasn't been sighted publicly since her impressive Miss Andretti Stakes win at Pinjarra on January 17th, with the stable reportedly targeting a slot in The Quokka. She is only 1/3 at the trip, but arguably should've won the Summer Scorcher first-up when unlucky from back in the field, finishing a length away.
Wild Belle beat Gemma's Son and Real Danger in the Miss Andretti, and despite winning comfortably that day she meets them both better at the weights.
The market was $2.25 Wild Belle vs. $6 Real Danger, and with further improvement expected out of the four-year-old mare, you can mark her much shorter than her current quote.
Chris Parnham shouldn't find himself in a position like he did first-up in the Summer Scorcher from the inside barrier, and he'll just need to give the mare enough room to move at the top of the straight so she can show us what she's really made of.
The other feature on Saturday afternoon is the Grandstand Cup at Listed level over 1500m.
Eight of the 9 runners come through the Bunbury Stakes a fortnight ago where RED FIFTY THREE narrowly missed out on victory from well back in the pack.
There was plenty of talk in the week following the day regarding a possible track bias favouring the on-pace runners, but we don't want to play into that too much.
While Red Fifty Three's racing pattern isn't ideal, what is ideal is the fact that despite being in the market last start and beating his rivals, they all remain at the same weights.
Karli's Karma has big question marks around her after issues with her throat last campaign, and Red Fifty Three ran straight past every rival he met last start and put over a length on them.
The Grant & Alana Williams team are just working themselves back into form now and the son of Gingerbread Man can go one better this time around.
The Bet365 Best From The West
BEST BET: Race 6 Number 7 WILD BELLE @ $2.80* with bet365
NEXT BEST: Race 8 Number 8 RED FIFTY THREE @ $3.50* with bet365
*Prices correct as of 4:30pm, March 21st.
