Spring comes early at Royal Randwick

Published: 03 Aug 2014

The Winter racing warms up this weekend with the Group 2 1200m Missile Stakes hosted at Royal Randwick. Current nominations are Group 1 quality as some of the nation's best gallopers start their preparation for the premier racing season. 

Current nominations include Boban, Messene, Tiger Tees, Sweet Idea, Weary, Foreteller and Hawkspur.

Betting on the event will be tricky and the mounting yard insights will be important to sort out which gallopers are primed for their first-up run (follow @TheRaceGuide on Twitter for mounting yard notes on each race).

Early mail from The Race Guide's analysts is focussed on the sprint specialists, such as Tiger Tees and Rebel Dane (assuming they accept). Classy horses like Boban and Messene are sure to be staying on late, but lack the pure speed of others in field and will need favours to win. Chris Waller and the Hawkes team will also be keen to ensure their gallopers are eased into their Spring programmes steadily.

Rebel Dane endured some bad luck in his last campaign after a very brave second behind Lankan Rupee in the TJ Smith first-up. He races well fresh and looks well placed.

To see all the Royal Randwick nominations for this Saturday's meeting, see the link below:

http://www.risa.com.au/FreeFields/Nominations.aspx?Key=2014Aug09,NSW,Royal Randwick

All class - Rebel Dane parading before the Group 1 TJ Smith during the Autumn Carnival. He finished second to star galloper Lankan Rupee, with Buffering in third (see below).