Following a breath taking performance to break his maiden status at Port Macquarie last start Shamekha's Choice appears well on the verge of notching up back to back wins when he lines up at Taree this afternoon.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Having failed on debut at Gosford under the watchful eye of the Hawkes stable back in November last year, connections of Shamekha's Choice elected to geld the well bred son of Redoute's Choice and switch stables sending him to Port Macquarie to join Neil Godbolt's team.
Making his return to racing after over a year off the scene, Shamekha's Choice quickly put pay to any fitness concerns when leading all the way to score eased down by six lengths.
While admittedly he is making a huge jump up in grade today when stepping up from maiden company to a Class 2 handicap, he is a galloper who appears to have plenty of upside and has drawn to receive the perfect run in transit.
The in-form Robert Thompson sticks aboard and with no other likely leader engaged in the race it appears he will receive an easy time in front and prove very hard to chase down.
Coming into this race with the highest 50 day Timeform figure of the field and with further improvement expected racing second up he is clearly the one they all have to beat.
Chew The Fat shapes as the main danger to Shamekha's Choice when he makes his debut for the powerful Darren Smith stable after previously being trained by Matthew Dunn.
Coming into this race off two solid performances since resuming this time in, Chew The Fat should be right at his peak fitness for this following a solid trial at Wyong when he wasn't knocked about over the 800m journey.
His prior form in Queensland reads well for this and from the rails draw he should be able to sit just off the back of the speed and if Shamekha's Choice proves to have any chinks in his armour expect Chew The Fat to be right there to take advantage.
Onemore Eightmore rates as the next best coming into this off a last start second placing at this track over 1260m.
He was entitled to finish a bit closer on that occasion after he was hunted up to lead from the wide stall and did very well to stick on in the straight.
Having only missed the money once from three attempts at this track he cannot be dismissed and shapes as a leading contender.
The Peter Ball trained Villamill and the Ken Parker trained Peninsula Princess round out the multiples.
Good luck and happy punting.
