The Australian Spring Guineas – 14th October 2017

At last! Some serious racing to get excited about. The first rays of Season 41 will shine down on Saturday where the Australian Spring Guineas heralds the start of bigger things to come in the months ahead.

The renewal of the Spring Guineas – the 37th by our calculations – is as good as anything we have seen in recent years and the contest looks set to get the hearts beating and the pulses racing.

Race field

#	Form	Horse	Stable	Jockey	Final Odds
1	2,1,1	Highly Arrogant	Angel’s Flight	Wayne Kinker	N/A
2	2,4,3	Bat Out Of Hell	Bristol Turks	Earleen Walloch	N/A
3	3,1,3,2	Ghost Pepper	Desert Wind Stables	!Morgan Tague!	N/A
4	2,1,4	Moondream	Ezulwini	Lilly Jahncke	N/A
5	2,4,6	Stirling Castle	Cape Hall	Jarrett Stana	N/A
6	2,5,7,7,2	Masked Horsey	DR Stables	!Sharell Lage!	N/A
7	3,2,2,3,6	Aly Alley Nono	Smogville	Henry Sylvestre	N/A
8	8,3,2,6,8	Lineup Carrots	Riffendal Stable	Isaias Tocchio	N/A
9	7	Service	Orange Star	Aaron Tietze	N/A
10	2,8	Sergeant Preston	Big Sky	Monica Hansel	N/A
11	3,4,3,1	Ps Dodgers Magoo	Priceless Speedsters	!Blazin’ Saddle!	N/A
12	1,2,5	Faith	win the day	Alla Shiba	N/A
13	4,1,1	Monterey	Polenov	Conchita Yuricic	N/A
14	13,4,5	He’s Archie	Jem Enterprises	Cleta Ploszaj	N/A
15	2,1,6	Losome Dirty	Southon Park	Livia Aresco(A)	N/A

Pre-race comments from:

Angel’s Flight – “Ahhh…Spring is in the air. The smell of flowers blooming and the beginning of the season where horses become a year older. At the ripe age of 3, Highly Arrogant come into this race in probably the best condition since being acquired. She ran a nice heat in the slow conditions this past weekend, but can improve off that effort and do a lot better on a surface she is more accustomed too. Happy racing and good luck to all the other contenders in the field.”

Riffendal Stable – “Thankfully Lineup Carrots survived the short prelude that didn’t really suit horse or jockey, should do better in the final, was 6th in the Champagne stakes so hopefully can go better here and break the top 5.”

Big Sky – “This is my first venture into Cups racing so I’m not fully confident. This race, hopefully, will allow me to learn more about Cups and how to prepare leading up to the races. I’m hoping my inexperience doesn’t keep Sergeant Preston from realizing his full potential.”

DR Stables – “Masked Horsey has plenty of experience but hasn’t shown much, so I don’t know what to expect. Top 5 or bottom 5 wouldn’t surprise me.”

Smogville – “Aly Alley Nono – He has useful distance XP and the final should bring the best out of the competitive style. However, Aly is unlikely to be fit and is giving away OR to every other runner in the race. We’re just making up the numbers in this one.”

win the day – “My jockey better step his game up if I’m going to win this cup…”

Desert Wind Stables – “Having been away for most of last month, Almah’s training slipped a little so I was pleased with her performance in the qualifier. I doubt she has enough to win against Highly Arrogant who won against her in their last 2 outings including the 2yo Champagne but I wouldn’t want to right her off completely. Also Morgan Tague is proving more useful than his experience suggests, with both horse and jockey firing up late.”

Polenov – “Monterey is not going to be in top vet shape, as she was racing on Sunday. Placing would be nice, but I cannot expect too much.”

Ezulwini – “It’s very difficult to know what to expect in these races. Highly Arrogant looks like the horse to beat, but Moondream should have a chance if things come together.”

Bristol Turks – “Bat Out Of Hell is work in progress. He ran fine in the heat but I needed to change jockeys for the final so will be interesting to see how that works out. A top 5 place will be fine.”

Priceless Speedsters – “We took our heat by a nose but we have less experience in med/fast Dodgers has heart and a decent jockey so we may place. Highly Arrogant may go wire to wire if not be watchful of Masked Horsey and Bat Out of Hell. Good luck to all.”