Neville Parnham’s Excelorada can bring up his third career Listed win in this afternoon’s Scenic Blast WATC Stakes (1100m) at Ascot.
The consistent son of Exceed And Excel looks ideally placed to end a 12-month winless run at the Perth race meeting which has been delayed two days due to the recent heatwave out west.
Excelorada comes into this off a handful of good runs, most recently finishing fourth 12 days ago in the Listed Summer Scorcher (1000m), running to a weight-adjusted Timeform figure of 103.
It was his third run in a row to earn that rating, following his second placing in the RS Crawford Stakes (1000m) last month and his game 1.5L fifth here on November 30 carrying 62kg.
That bulletproof consistency, which has earned him 10 wins from 25 starts. makes him the one to beat today.
The extra distance out to 1100m should suit him, as will barrier one.
It looks a tight race on paper, but Parnham’s galloper should just have enough class to get him home.
Dueton must be considered one of the major dangers given he narrowly beat Excelorada into third place in that Summer Scorcher on New Year’s Day.
He ran to a weight-adjusted figure of 100 in that race, but meets the top pick here a kilogram worse off for his troubles.
Dueton did win his only other start at the 1100m, although he did seem to peak on his run a little early last start which is a slight concern for mine.
In saying that, he’s only missed the top three twice in 11 runs at this track and can improve again today third-up.
He looks one to be keeping safe.
Top weight Watermans Bay is an interesting runner, looking to bounce back after a disappointing seventh in the Group 3 AJ Scahill Stakes (1400m) 37 days ago.
He was well supported on that day but failed to live up to the hype, running to a weight-adjusted figure of 95.
It seems the punters, and unsurprisingly so, were lured in by his impressive third placing to superstar sprinter Buffering in the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes (1200m) back in November.
That run earned a weight-adjusted figure of 114, although hindsight is suggesting it was most likely a one-off performance.
In any event, that piece of form deserves respect so don’t rule him out entirely.
