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By Tony Megahey

If the James McDonald team sought the ride and Opal Ridge was talented enough to contest the Group 2 Silver Shadow and then nominate for the Darley Furious Stakes, it's all aboard with bells on back into a target Country Class 3, TAB Highway at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

All logic has the Rubick filly as short as $2.60 with TAB (in from the opening $4).

Opal Ridge and Mitchell Bell power away at Scone. Image by Bradley Photographers

And trainer Luke Pepper, enjoying a highly productive move to Scone from Canberra and Moruya with a solid team, elaborates on her comeback after a six-month enforced spell.

Opal Ridge is excitement personified following Canberra and Scone wins in near record times and then competitive against Group fillies in town.

“We’ve always had a huge opinion of her - she had a hairline fibula fracture after she won her first start in Canberra, the reason for all that time out, but she’s come back enormous,” Pepper enthused.

Opal Ridge is all the rage with 56kg for the champion jockey in a $100,000, 1200m episode of the TAB Highway; an entrée to a tremendous day of Group racing at headquarters.

Pepper never over-rates but has had ongoing success in town and is a multiple Country Cups winner.

“This filly deserved a crack in a higher grade with the authority of her wins and those times.

“And when the McDonald team chased the ride when we decided on the Highway instead of the Furious (Group 2), it certainly gives you confidence.”

Pepper was anticipating the betting reaction and the attention that accompanies McDonald when he and his agent single out a Highway ride.

“I don’t look at prices - my job is to place them in the right races and get them there on the day the best they can possibly be.

“Then it’s if they’re good enough. And on what this filly has shown in better class, she'll be hard to beat. And she handles all going.”

Opal Ridge ran super races behind Waller and Godolphin fillies Zougotcha and Troach, guaranteed Group quality.

“She had no luck whatsoever from a wide barrier last start in a Group 2 and her previous form was super.”

It certainly was. At two years, the filly won at Canberra and Scone in near record times by wide margins, before a close second in a Rosehill Gardens two-year-old won by Troach.

Then Opal Ridge drew the extreme outside in the Gr 2-Silver Shadow and was beaten five lengths by Zougotcha.

While Saturday’s country Class 3 is a massive drop in grade, it’s still a particularly strong Highway as the just turned three-year-old filly concedes weight and experience to older horses.

The Danny Williams-trained Jalmari ($26) ran second last prep in a Gr 3-Carbine Stakes but starting at $51 in a recent Highway won by Pokerjack suggests the horse may need more racing.

The boom remains on Riverina sprinter Participator ($4.40) with strong series form and again Hugh Bowman on top.

Aside there is Highway winners and solid series form throughout with headquarters a Soft 7 and minor showers forecast.

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