By Adam Hamilton
THE All Stars influence is starting to hot up in Queensland.
Megastar filly Amazing Dream opens her Queensland campaign for trainer Darren Weeks and Kylie Rasmussen at Albion Park on Saturday night.
The Bettors Delight filly, who boasts 11 wins and six placings from her 18 starts, was sharpened-up with a close second to stablemate Ashley Locaz (yes, he’s in Queensland now too) in an Albion Park trial on Tuesday.
Ashley Locaz, now with Vicki Rasmussen, led the 1660m trial and dawdled through a 60.7sec first half, before zipping home in 55.8 and 27.3sec.
Amazing Dream sat on Ashley Locaz’s back and while the leader was driven-out, the filly looked to cruise to the line to finish just 1.9m away in second spot.
Amazing Dream looks leagues above her rivals despite drawing the outside (gate seven) over 1660m in the last of 11 races at Albion Park on Saturday night.
Another All Stars pacer, Dina Bolt, opened his Queensland campaign for Weeks and Kylie Rasmussen with a 2.4m third as favourite in the sixth race at Albion Park yesterday (Tuesday).
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KIWIS will get to watch Australia’s most exciting pacer Ride High in an early timeslot at Shepparton on Saturday night.
Clayton Tonkin’s untapped star is a $1.04 favourite to stretch his record to 15 wins from just 16 starts in the second event (8.04pm NZ time).
Ride High has looked amazing winning all four runs on the comeback trail from a breathing-related throat operation.
With Lochinvar Art recovering from a minor viral infection, Ride High is simply a league above his Shepparton rivals again this week.
It’s all about how far he wins by and – if connections want – how much he takes off the 1min51.5sec track record for 1690m.
Ride High’s latest 1min49sec mile rate took 2.7sec off the Bendigo 1650m track record.
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WILL the amazing Cash N Flow make it 10 successive Menangle mile free-for-all wins?
That’s his challenge heading to NSW’s harness headquarters again on Saturday night.
The field is no harder than he’s beaten in many of his recent wins and, despite the outside draw, it’ll be a major shock if he doesn’t stretch the winning streak.
His major rivals look to be Atomic Red (gate three) and his in-form and improving stablemate Replaced Eye (10).
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COMEBACK hero Chicago Bull should make a one-act affair of the August Cup (2536m) at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
As if the pint-sized superstar didn’t already have a class edge on his rivals, he snared the pole in the random draw.
Chicago Bull has won 10 of his 15 runs on the comeback trail and 53 of his 81 lifetime starts.
There’s a bit more depth this week with classy veteran Galactic Star resuming from gate four and the talented Handsandwheels in the mix from gate three.
