Race 3 on Darwin Cup Day looks a perfect one for Rising Sphere.
The former Stokes-trained galloper clearly needed his first run on the dirt to tune-up, but he responded with an utterly dominant performances last time out, greeting the judge nearly seven lengths ahead of his rivals.
Fitter third-up, I think he’ll only be better.
I was a big fan of Mangione while he was under the care of Chris Waller, and I think he can strike for Kerry Petrick in the top end today.
Mangione has picked off several nice metro races throughout his career, and he has improved with each of his four starts on the dirt since resuming this time, filling the minors over a mile here last time.
He’s rock-hard fit and I don’t think he’ll be offered a better opportunity to win in Darwin.
Lady Whistledown was nothing short of outstanding here in Darwin last time out, and a repeat of that performance will see her winning the penultimate race on Darwin Cup Day.
The Unencumbered filly has been up and racing for some time, but she really has relished the move north, and filled the minors at her first run in the top end before dominating last time out.
She gets into this race well under the conditions and it looks the next logical step for her.
Playoffs is the one that I want to be with in this year’s Darwin Cup.
The former Victorian returned plenty of nice efforts while under the care of Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, and won in BM84 company at Flemington back in February most notably this year.
He arrived in Darwin for an impressive win in the Chief Minister’s Cup a few weeks ago and will only improve for that effort, and getting out to the Darwin Cup trip.