A couple of key chances arrive at Sandown on Saturday with strong winning hopes that are further boosted by potential speed angles.
Jacquinot Bay looks to roll to the lead uncontested in the first race with the small field lacking for those with early toe.
It's also lacking for horses with recent winning form so Jacquinot Bay, who is aiming for three wins on the bounce, stands out before we even get to how the race will be run.
Jacquinot has travelled his first 1000m in between 16.1 and 16.3 metres per second in his last three. The nearest to him in terms of early speed shown in today's race is Mister Milton who travelled at 15.8 mps early last time but that was in a fast race and that's quicker than he typically travels early on.
This points to a soft lead and/or otehrs being ridden out of their comfort zone. Advantage Jacquinot.
Advantage is confirmed when we take into account that, the best part of 25% of all horses that lead to the turn over the Sandown mile go on to win and that number grows quickly when we only consider market leaders and/or top-rated horses on Racing And Sports' ratings.
All in all, odds against looks a worthwhile gamble on horse with much in his favour.
Similarly Decircles looks to get things his way from the front in race 6.
He's hardly been the most reliable character in terms of winning over the years but a look at his ratings graph - which you can view here - shows that he is actually fairly consistent and racing as well as he ever has at this point.
When given his time out in front he can be a mighty hard horse to run down and that looks the scenario today.
THE MELBOURNE MAIL:
Bet of the Day: Sandown Race 1 #1 Jacquinot Bay @ $2.10
Each Way Play: Sandown Race 6 #2 Decircles @ $4.80
