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By Graeme White

Invertational ($3.70 on TAB) will take some imposing figures that are hard to ignore into the feature race at Wagga on Thursday.

The mare is unbeaten in three starts at Wagga, has a perfect second-up record and jockey Louise Day has a winning habit on her.

Invertational (Louise Day) returns after winning at Canberra. Image by Bradley Photographers

“Louise has ridden her five times for three wins and her statistics at Wagga and also second-up are terrific,” trainer Matt Kelley said.

“She was due to start in the Goulburn Country Championships Wild Card last Sunday, but wasn’t 100 per cent and the extra few days off has her right for Wagga.

“Work wise, she is going better than she was last preparation. She has had a few niggling issues that are hopefully behind her.

“Fingers crossed, she can win because she seems to be going better than what she was before.”

Invitational – a winner of four of her 10 starts – has only raced twice in the past 12 months and has had two trials this campaign with a start in between.

She ran fifth first-up at Canberra behind Demanding Mo and has since finished a close second behind Love Shuck in a fast race at Goulburn.

Kelley said Invitational’s first-up effort was better than it looked where she ran on in a race that was dominated by the on-speed horses.

“The winner dictated in front and she probably shouldn’t have ran on as well as she did,” he said. Day has been aboard Invitational in two of her Wagga wins as well as her latest success at Canberra.

The scratching of Solvere from the Byrnes Trailers Benchmark 82 (1400m) has taken away one of the main chances.

Trooper Knuckle ($3.20 favourite) is first-up and stablemate Offspring ($4.40) is having her second start this preparation. Offspring only beat one rival to the finish in the SERA Country Championships and has won twice from three second-up starts.

Trooper Knuckle can also perform strongly when resuming and has strong form at Canberra. He had his latest start when ninth in the Gundagai Snake Gully Cup in November.

Meanwhile, Backwater Trader ($6.50) resumes racing in the Wagga Paint Distributors Benchmark 66 (1000m) with strong first-up form on his side. The gelding has won twice from three attempts when resuming and has a winning association with apprentice jockey Hannah Williams.

Shooting For Stars ($3.10) ran well when third at Albury last week, while stablemate Sheila ($11) had excuses when beaten as a short priced favourite first-up at Berrigan. Sheila missed the start by a couple of lengths last time and has drawn the outside gate in the field of eight.

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Wagga here