As the Brisbane winter carnival heats up, Saturday’s fixture at Eagle Farm sees a highly competitive field contesting the $350,000 Group 2 Queensland Guineas over 1600m.
Six of the 17 runners have single-figure odds in the early markets, with a host of interstate raiders looking to spoil the party for the locally-trained brigade. Among them, the Michael Freedman-trained colt DUCASSE boasts strong claims after his impressive last-start win in the Group 2 Carbine Club Stakes at Randwick.
Godolphin gelding, RAZORS, brings with him strong Sydney form which should give him an edge, following a second-place finish in the Listed South Pacific Classic over 1400m.
Robert Heathcote-trained PRESS LINK looks like the standout among the locals, with the gelding building a smart record of three wins from four starts and coming off the back of a luckless second-place finish in his most recent start, where he raced wide throughout.
Uncommon James back to on common ground
Quality five-year-old gelding UNCOMMON JAMES is poised to claim the $300,000 Group 2 Victory Stakes over 1200m at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Australia, on Saturday.
UNCOMMON JAMES returns to Queensland for the first time since July 2022 and is second-up after a passable first-up run, finishing fifth in the Group 1 Galaxy over 1100m at Rosehill in late March. On that occasion, he was doing his best work late and was only beaten by 1.8 lengths behind some quality types, which is strong form to bring north this week.
Despite not having won a race since February last year, UNCOMMON JAMES has competed in much tougher races than this week’s event during that time, placing behind the likes of IMPERATRIZ et al, which should give him a good chance to return to winning form.
3YO filly Generous to a fault
Three-year-old filly GENEROSITY can secure a second-up win when she competes in the $80,000 Ratings 66+ race over 1200m at Ascot Racecourse, Australia.
GENEROSITY is second-up after a four-month break this week and resumed with a promising run to finish third over 1000m. The Simon Miller-trained youngster was slow into stride on that occasion but finished strongly, coming from last to beat all but two rivals.
The additional ground appears to be in GENEROSITY’S favour this week, and with barrier 2 and jockey Chris Parnham aboard, she looks to be the one to beat based on current form.
