Indeed, our traders are bracing themselves for a frenetic few days of activity with Saturday’s Flemington card headlined by the Kensington Stakes (Race 7) over the 1000m dash.
Hellbent showed a terrific turn of foot to overwhelm Sheidel with a memorable performance on Underwood Stakes Day last year and is expected to take all the beating despite the absence of a lead-in trial.
However, he hasn’t always been the most reliable of horses and is prone to throwing in the odd ‘shocker’ so we’re more than happy to oppose the bay at his current odds-on quotes.
Weir has a stranglehold on betting at the time of writing with El Divino, a half-brother to superstar Winx, set to make his debut for the stable after transferring from the Waterhouse yard.
With a win alongside Astern to his credit this colt obviously has some talent but he failed to really live up to the hype during his second preparation and may still need a bit more time.
Instead, we were looking to the Hayes/Dabernig runner Churchill Dancer, who ran a highly creditable second to Holler in the aforementioned Australia Stakes, to lay down the main challenge to the favourite.
He came through a recent jumpout on this course in fine order, has raced well down the straight in the past and has a number of competitive showings at Group level on his resume.