Rising Romance is out to use the Zipping Classic as a springboard to Hong Kong next month.
The scratching of Dandino has taken some of the interest out of the race but there will still be plenty of attention on Rising Romance who, you would have to think, will need to be winning if she is going to play a role at the Hong Kong International Meeting where the Vase looks her most likely target.
A luckless run in the Turnbull and a plain run in the Caulfield Cup were put aside in the Mackinnon last time when Rising Romance returned to her best form to finish second to Gailo Chop.
A Timeform Rating of 116 there matched her effort in the Makybe Diva – when also second – earlier in the preparation and that is a rating that makes her hard to beat at Sandown with her mares allowance.
In the last three runnings of the Zipping Classic a performance rating of 116 would have been good enough to land Rising Romance the prize. Epingle, a 111-rated mare, has taken the runner-up spot in the past two seasons.
Surprisingly few runners have come through the Mackinnon to Sandown in recent years, though Zipping himself ran third in the Mackinnon before winning his first then Sandown Classic in 2007.
If Rising Romance is to make her presence felt in Hong Kong, where she is expected to head following Saturday, a rating of 116 would be the bare minimum for her to get involved looking at the likely fields.
She would want to win and win well here to be a genuine winning hope.
The chief danger is Who Shot Thebarman who does have a rating to beat her if at his best.
His Melbourne Cup run was okay given the chequered passage that he, like many others, had in the race, and his form prior to that had been rock solid.
In fact, he started shorter than Rising Romance in the Turnbull and ran well there, closing off late in a nice Cup trial.
We can take his engagement here as a positive lead from the yard, he has clearly done well since the Cup, and his 2400m form suggests that he is good enough to win.
He was good int eh Caulfield Cup, but more poignant to today might his run in the BMW back in the autumn when he was very strong late in the piece behind Hartnell and Japanese star To The World at weight for age.
There he ran to a Timeform rating of 120, a figure that effectively makes him the equal of Rising Romance after her mares allowance, and a rating that makes him up to the standard required of a Sandown Classic winner these days.
That duo have a stranglehold on the race from a ratings perspective. The market elects Tall Ship as one likely to step up to a new level today, and there are a few positive signs.
Tall Ship was an impressive winner of the Warrnambool Cup at the back of last season, returning a Timeform rating of 107p.
He has ticked along nicely this campaign, running his best race of the season to date last time when returning to that 107 rating at Flemington.
Now he goes back to 2400m and a spike in his rating looks to be on the cards.
He may be a better winning hope back against the handicapper in a race like the Ballarat Cup on the back of Saturday but he’s an improving horse, and one of considerable talent, and he shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand at Sandown.
