Progressive Craig Tyrrell mare Anna Lizzie stretches out to the mile today third-up and looks set to grab a fifth career win from her 10th career start.
She’s taken giant strides over the past six months and looks on the fringe of grabbing her biggest win to date in an open handicap against her own sex.
The writing was put on the wall resuming at this track two weeks back where she ducked and weaved late on over 1350m to get up in the last few strides against Class 6 opposition.
That was a career-peak performance and a number she can build on today.
Two weeks back she got well back in a slowly run mares race over 1350m and only warmed to the task in the final 100m where she ran on into fourth beaten three lengths.
Now she drops 4kg down to the minimum and finds a race with a bit of speed in it which should suit her to a tee.
Leviosa looks the biggest danger. She ran second in that race two weeks ago beaten 1.3L and only meets Anna Lizzie a kilogram worse off.
The problem with her though is she’s untried over this trip, and hasn’t won in 533 days.
Gotta Be Lucky is another one worth considering off a win at this trip three weeks ago at Eagle Farm.
She did get a bit lucky in that race though when a few more fancied runners on her inside were held up at a crucial stage, allowing her to take full advantage.
Anna Lizzie is currently a $2.30 chance and in all seriousness should be a little bit shorter.
The play of the day is in the next on the card, a Benchmark 90 Handicap also over the mile.
I like the look of Elmantosh in this one, following his gutsy third behind Listen Son at this C&D two weeks back.
He was stuck wide most the trip on that occasion up on the speed and fourth on well all the way down the straight to finish 1.5L away.
With a better run in transit he may have grabbed a third-straight win.
Elmantosh carries the same weight today and should get a better run from gate five.
If he runs up to that form again, he’ll be very hard to beat. The $3.60 looks rather juicy at this point.
Magic In Motion should test although she was well below par here two weeks ago in that same mares race Anna Lizzie and Leviosa came through.
She’s much better than that, and poses a real threat out to the mile.
But she does have a fair bit to find on that latest run so I’m prepared to take her on.
The lay of the day comes up in race three where Belltone is back in town after a couple of solid performances in Sydney.
Most recently he finished just 4.4L off Boban in the Group 1 Epsom Handicap.
He clearly has a class edge on most of these, but the 60.5kg should see to taking the shine off that even with Aidan Holt’s 3kg claim lessening the blow.
It’s been a taxing campaign for the Kelso Wood-trained eight-year-old and he bumps into a couple of in-form gallopers here.
Miss Imagica ran a huge race behind Black Cash last week at Doomben getting back to the form which netted her this year’s Weetwood Handicap.
Listen Son meanwhile is coming off a strong win from two weeks ago while Belltone’s stablemate Signified has been ticking over nicely since resuming.
The $3.30 about Belltone looks a touch skinny.
BANKER: Race 6 No 6 Anna Lizzie @ $2.30
PLAY OF THE DAY: Race 7 No 10 Elmantosh @ $3.60
LAY OF THE DAY: Race 3 No 1 Belltone @ $3.30
