Host Of The Party will appreciate the step up in trip and prove very hard to beat when he lines up in the Centrebet RST62 Handicap (2000m) at Geelong today.
Photo by Racing and Sports
The Robert Smerdon-trained runner made up good ground late over 1850m at Kyneton last start and the extra 150m should play into his hands here.
Host Of The Party has since had a freshen up and trialled well at Cranbourne recently, winning by 5L over 1550m and current form reads well for a race like this.
Despite only having the one win in seven career outings, the three-year-old gelding has raced in tougher company for the most part this preparation and rates well clear on weight adjusted Timeform ratings.
Dwayne Dunn who has ridden the horse in all bar one of his races stays on board and although drawing well in barrier 3 is still likely to settle in the second half of the field.
He will be getting to the line strongly and with the extra distance expect him to be able to bridge the gap on the leaders here, something he has not been able to do over the shorter trips.
The main danger Priority Road has been scratched so Pelikaan Straat looms as the biggest threat.
He comes into this on the back of a last start win at this C/D and does his best racing over this trip. Winning jockey Brad Rawiller stays on board and he will be there at the finish again.
Selected Few also rates a mention winning here two runs back before a disappointing showing on a slow track at Ballarat last start. Up in the weights but has drawn well in barrier four and looks a good each way chance here.
Outside of these Constant Momentum is also worth a mention, coming into this on the back of a good second at Seymour over 2000m.
He does not posses the best winning strike rate but form for the most part has been good this preparation and he can certainly make his presence felt in a race like this.
Endzone from the Mark Young yard has been mixing his form of late but if he can reproduce his last start performance when runner up at Ballarat he is certainly up to winning a race like this.
