Stratego has only made one competitive appearance at the races so far, but looks to be a horse with a good amount of talent and can fight out the finish of Race 1 at Pakenham today. The War filly was clearly still green when she stepped out at Moe first-up and handled the heavy surface well to finish fourth. She’ll take plenty of benefit from the experience into this race and with improvement, looks over the odds.
Written On Rock is yet to break her maiden through seven career starts but is faced with an excellent opportunity to break the duck this afternoon. The daughter of Written Tycoon was forced to settle towards the tail of the field at Moe last start but mustered an impressive turn of foot to fly home for fifth. She can settle closer to the pace in a small field today and looks to have an edge over her rivals.
Workdrinks has not been seen at the races since March but has trialled well in the lead-up to her first-up run at Newcastle this afternoon, and has a class edge over her rivals here. the Fastnet Rock filly failed to finish outside the places during her maiden racing campaign last spring and ended her campaign third at Listed level. Her short autumn preparation wasn’t quite as fruitful, but she’s reportedly furnished into a bigger horse and will be ready to fire today.
Craiglea Deken has been a strong and consistent performer throughout his entire racing career and finds himself in another very winnable race in North Queensland this afternoon. The five-year-old is typically weighted out of his races and has lugged 63kgs for third in each of his two most-recent starts at Mackay and Townsville respectively. He drops 4kgs into this afternoon’s race and has plenty of options in transit from the rails draw. This is terrific placement and he’ll be tough to beat.