By Ray Hickson
ROSEHILL GARDENS – BEST BET: Race 1 No.2 – CABALLUS
A $1 million yearling who backed up his luckless debut at 1250m with a strong burst to run down a smart filly in Estriella when back to 1100m at Randwick two weeks back. While he was a $12 chance in that race there was no element of fluke about it, he settled nicely in a midfield position and was too sharp for them late. Expect now he's up to a more suitable 1300m and drawn nicely he won't be far away again and if he can unleash a similar sort of sprint we could see a nice colt on the way to better races.
ROSEHILL GARDENS – BEST VALUE: Race 5 No.3 – VRENELI
In a race with a small question mark over the favourite, certainly from a distance perspective, this Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott trained on pacer could give plenty of cheek first-up. His record says he improves with a run, he did win second and third-up last time in after arguably overdoing it in front fresh, but he is a strong 1200m-1400m horse and that could come into play. There's been nothing wrong with his trials and if they let Adam Hyeronimus control the tempo of the race he can take some running down.
ROSEHILL GARDENS – SECTIONAL STAR: Race 4 No.8 – TAGS
Hard luck has been the story of Tags for much of his career but there's no doubt he's a talented horse, he did qualify for a Country Championships Final but injury cost him a start in that race. He's been an eye-catcher in both starts this time around and in his last start fifth behind Iron Will he ran a race best last 600m of 34.20 while his last 200m of 11.45 was almost two lengths faster than anything else in the race. The step to 1300m is a plus and he's peaking now so if he gets the breaks he could post an overdue win.
KEMBLA GRANGE – PROVINCIAL PICK: Race 7 No.8 – WOOLOOWIN
Lightly raced filly from the Nathan Doyle yard who beat older horses easily in her first-up win at Gosford last month. She'll be even better for that and gives every indication that 1200m will be right up her alley. Not too concerned about a tricky gate, Kembla can play down the middle quite often but she'll likely offset it by looking for some cover in the second half. The potential is there for her to make it to city grade sooner rather than later and she'll be hard to beat.
THE B SET PODCAST
Check out 'The B Set' Podcast, where Brodie Nickson and yours truly take a closer look at the Rosebud meeting from Rosehill Gardens.
All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting