Best Bet

Race 6 - #8 JAKKALNUTS (Win)

A very consistent performer in her 13-start career. Her last 6 starts have been in Rating 75 grade, producing 5 placings with the one failure being on the Synthetic. I have a slight concern with the 6-week gap between runs for this event, but she is at a competitive weight in this field, and she meets an even bunch of horses at the top of the market. She maps to get a great run from gate 3 and with the likely scratching of Classic Diva who has got into the Winter Cup off the ballot, I thought anything around the $5 to $5.50 mark was good shopping for the locally trained Jakkalnuts here.

Next Best

Race 9 - #4 KICK ON (Each Way)

Another great race for the 126^th edition of the Winter Cup. Long time favourite and northern raider Justaskme has been very impressive this prep, winning 3 of his last 4, but he has been allocated the good horse’s weight of 61kg. Because the topweight has such a high rating, Kick On is exceptionally well weighted here with just 53.5kg, as are a few runners in the event. With two placings over 1100m and 1200m so far this prep, it looks like Kevin Myers has had an eye on this race all along for Kick On as well as stablemate Aljay. Kick On hasn’t been given a weight this light since he won at this carnival last year and his record suggests he has the class to win a race like this. He opened at $14 and has already been backed in to $10, market support suggesting he presents as a key danger to the favourite.