It’s Finals Day at Flemington where a strong nine race program will be conducted.
In terms of purse size, the VRC-Crv Winter Championship Series Final and the All Victorian Sprint Series Final spearhead proceedings each with $150,000 purses.
In the latter, Voodoo Lad is expected to take a power of beating.
The Darren Weir-trained runner has performed well this campaign, winning two of his three starts, the latest when saluting over this distance at Moonee Valley on June 18.
The son of I Am Invincible defeated Duke Of Brunswick on that occasion who has since come out and franked the form with a success at Caulfield last Saturday.
Voodoo Lad defeated two rivals he faces here on that occasion, Kievann and Magnus Reign.
For beating those pair decisively, Voodoo Lad meets them only 1kg worse off at the weights.
The four-year-old has been in excellent form since returning off a generous spell and contests the All Victorian Sprint Series Final following a display which returned a Timeform rating of 102.
A new master trimeform rating for Voodoo Lad, such a figure has the Weir runner sitting prominently amongst this field.
Still only early in his campaign, he must be a chance of producing further improvement fourth run from a spell also.
This said, Voodoo Lad arguably doesn’t have to improve on that rating to be winning this with a number of his main rivals sitting noticeably outside of the handicap.
The Victorian Sprint Series Final possesses two key form lines, the Voodoo Lad form line and the Odyssey Moon form line from this course over 1100m in Open company a fortnight ago.
Ruettiger shapes as the pick of those here from the Odyssey Moon event after he hit the line impressively for a third.
The son of Duporth ran to a Timeform rating of 100, a new master figure for the Team Freedman-trained gelding.
Ruettiger is in the thick of things on the strength of that display however it should be noted how far clear of his prior best that Flemington outing was.
Alberto Magic also comes out of the Odysset Moon event where he finished a well beaten eighth.
A post race examination revealed a slow post race recovery for the son of Magic Albert.
Knowing there were excuses for the poor performance, those prepared to overlook the run could well be rewarded.
Kievann placed behind Voodoo Lad last start, beaten 2.8 lengths.
It was a sound effort and he profiles as a value player.
Against him however is an underwhelming course record and the fact Voodoo Lad had his measure by some way when they clashed three weeks ago.
The son of Niello will go forward though and give them all something to chase.
Value players shape as Reldas and Magnus Reign.
Each have their fair share of convictions however on the best of their respective form, both are capable of running cheeky races at odds.
While we have discussed more than half the field contesting the All Victorian Sprint Series Final, it is Voodoo Lad who quite clearly presents as the most watertight case.
His favouritism is justified.
