Hats off to Colgate for enduring with the name sponsorship of Saturday’s feature race at Royal Randwick. It’s been several years now, and not one soul is closer to calling this the ‘Colgate Optic White Stakes’.
The 2019 George Main has drawn a truly outstanding field of milers and the void left by equine superstar Winx means that for the first time in a long time, we’re faced with an excellent betting race.
It would not be surprising to see any of about eight horses fight their way into winner’s stall, but you can find my 2019 George Main Stakes tips below.
Suggested Bets
- 2 Units straight out #1 Happy Clapper
- Boxed Trifecta of the selections below
My favourite horse is second-up at Randwick on Saturday and I am more than Happy to put the Clapper on top of my 2019 George Main Stakes tips. I was a little wary of what the multiple Group 1 champion would do when he stepped out in the Group 1 Winx first-up last month but as he always does, he produced a big effort to finish second behind shock winner Samadoubt. He gets out to a mile here, is drawn an absolute peach in gate 4 and I like that Pat Webster has sent him around in a trial in the lead-up to this. Best horse in the race, for mine.
He’s the firm favourite in betting again and there’s no real reason why Avilius can’t figure in the finish of the George Main Stakes. He was fair but luckless when fourth in the Winx Stakes first-up, and perhaps a little flat in the Chelmsford a fortnight ago, but his class took him a long way – all the way to a second placing, in fact. He clearly has the ability and if James Cummings has him tightened up just a little more, he’ll be right in there again.
How bloody good was Dreamforce first-up in the Tramway two weeks ago!? He really justified the enormous go in betting and while there’s little doubt he’ll enjoy improvement from the effort, he does face a rise in class into the George Main field. The evergreen veteran ran third behind Winx in the George Main and second to Brutal in the Donny in autumn, and he can navigate to a prominent position in running from the rails draw on Saturday. He’s sure to give them something to chase.
I don’t really want to have him, but you just cannot leave Samadoubt out given what he’s done so far this time. His shock win in the Winx Stakes first-up was obviously enormous, but he came out and franked that with another dominant performance in the Chelmsford Stakes last time out and there’s every chance that the $7 available in George Main betting could prove to be overs again. Small knock is that he might need to do a bit of work from barrier 10, and there’s better pace horses in this race.