Randwick Kensington Race 2- Rock Empire

Another midweek meeting, another Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott smart debutant. This son of Deep Field had won a trial impressively leading in and is so often the case, was prepared perfectly and raced professionally, sitting outside the lead and putting a gap on his rivals. Even more impressive is the fact that this race, the only maiden on the card, produced the fastest time figure of the day. No doubt he can win again next time and foray into some lower level stakes company against his age group this Spring.

Sandown Hillside Race 3- Akicita

On face value Akicita looks fairly disappointing here, going under as a warm favourite despite looking like having the race shot to bits at the 200m. Found it tough to find a horse to follow just with how many below average tempos- only the two 1000m races were what you'd call genuinely run. Akicita has come from last off a slow tempo, ranged up very nicely with easily the race fastest 600-400m and 400-200m before just peaking late, and potentially also getting a bit lost. Potentially some headgear next start and a more genuine tempo and I think we'll see a better performance.