There has been plenty of buzz about the Royals of late, and the Melbourne Mail is getting right on board.
Kate and Will lobbed with another lil Royal, ensuring that the supermarket mags will have another few decades of speculation about romance and weight gain, and Prince Harry spun around Australia to a great deal of pomp and pageantry.
Harry has departed but The Melbourne Mail hasn't done away with the fanfare just yet, finding another Prince to cheer as he passes by this weekend; Prince Harada.
Despite being a little bit frisky and playful in his younger years the Prince was always a loveable rogue, and as he has gotten older he appears to have settled down and become a true professional at his caper.
Prince Harada has followed suit, right down to a gelding operation that means he too has no prospect of siring any future Prince's down the track.
He was a good winner first up from a break, taking advantage of a lovely handicap mark to start his new life as a gelding, and while unable to improve second up he didn't take a step backwards either, sticking to his task on inferior going to the pair that beat him home.
The step to 1400m on firmer ground today looks a big plus and while some time ago now it's worth pointing out his effort the last time he stepped out over the Flemington 1400m.
There he chased home the smart Hucklebuck in a well up to scratch C.S Hayes Stakes with those behind him including Criterion - not that the Criterion on that day was the same as the Criterion that has since proven himself high class but he was a smart performer all the same.
Prince Harada was rated 109 on the back of that performance, and that rating was hardly an outlier, it sat well in line with his form at the time.
A return to that level would set the bar mighty high for his rivals tomorrow, but that seems somewhat unlikely. A figure in between his current form and that rating seems more likely, and that level of form would still leave Prince Harada as the standard bearer.
Worth A Ransom is an ominously named danger to the Prince, he was lurking dangerously behind him in that Hayes, but the Prince would have to drop his guard to be ambushed by him here.
As an each way play the Hawkes-trained Longeron looks over the odds in race seven. He was very good last time in what looks the key form reference for this race and the $7.00 on offer looks to undersell his chances.
He'll be up on the speed and right in the thick of the action when we need him there.
THE MELBOURNE MAIL
Bet Of The Day: Race 9 #13 Prince Harada @ $3.40
Each Way Play: Race 7 #11 Longeron @ $7.00
