2:10am - STRAWBERRY HILL STUD HANDICAP | 1300m | | i

A brilliant day of Royal Randwick spring racing starts with one of the better 3YO races you are likely to see all year. The track should be an improving SOFT 5 to GOOD 4 and the rail is out +8m, which could result in some ON-PACE and NEAR RAILS bias on the day. The leaders in the first look like YAO DASH and SUPERIUM, who will be very hard to get past. YAO DASH produced stunning figures on debut (big upside, raw) and SUPERIUM sets the benchmark for form after effectively winning a G3 last start. PANDEMIC has a big enough turn-of-foot to compete with them if he gets luck and runs out the 1300m. FUNSTAR the other highly promising galloper in the race, she'll have to be right at her best fresh with the big weight against the boys over 1300m. [updated 8:34am]