Racing: Quickasucan hard to beat in mud

Indikator (far left) with his 59kg makes an interesting contrast to the 53kg Montjee carries in race 7 today. Photo / APN

Course winning stats and victories on heavy ground are enough boxes ticked to make Quickasucan one of the better bets at Tauranga today.

Oh, and, he's also trained on the course.

Quickasucan (No11, R8) is one of the best improving mudders in the business. He can give you a fright by getting well back early, but he improves quickly and is relentless in a tough finish.

There are a couple of better horses than the ones he's met so far to beat here, like Hurricane Mickey, whose wet track form is sensational, but the 4kg pull in the weights will help sway it towards the local. This is an interesting race with Don Dixit and Coolross adding strength to the mix.

The wide gate for Oberon (No3, R1) looks ugly, but even early in the day that may not be the disadvantage it looks on paper. Also, he has Opie Bosson to help him overcome the issue. Oberon was only just beaten at Ellerslie last start and should go close to his first victory here.

Tart 'N' Tartan (No1, R2) has won her first two by a collective 10.5 lengths and with a 2kg claim off her 58kg topweight should go close to making it a treble. At 56kg she sits only 2kg above the minimum weight, although well-fancied She's Invincible (No7) will carry a light 52.5kg with Rory Hutchings aboard.

If you take away Tart 'N' Tartan's 4.5 length winning margin at Ellerslie last start, it means Poppy Rose (No8, R4) was beaten into third by less than four lengths. Considering she lost more than 10 lengths with a very slow beginning it makes it a solid effort. With Rory Hutchings taking 3kg off her 56.5kg, she has only to get away fairly to be very difficult to beat. Angelwithattitude (No16), generally goes well on her home track.

Some of these races are tricky and Race 5 falls into that category. Genaffair (No8) might be a touch of value given you can probably forget her eighth placing at Trentham last start on a track that didn't suit most runners. There are a few to beat here, Flavour Flav (No4) among them.

Indikator (No1, R7) with his 59kg makes an interesting contrast to the 53kg Montjee carries.

That 6kg will be even more massive than it looks as they get well into this programme in extremely testing conditions today. You would normally say that gives an irresistible advantage to Montjee, but there was something very special about the way Indikator won under big weights before he went to Sydney.

We are going to lean slightly his way again despite the dump truck on his back.

Be nice to see southerner Royal Flight (No1, R9) take the Tauranga Classic - Brian and Shane Anderton have bitten off a lot to bring the mare up from Dunedin for this. She is accomplished in the mud and Opie Bosson is the right new jock to ride a mare that needs to be held up until the last 100m.

Cool Cruising (No13) and stablemates Sacha (No2) and Platinum Zana (No3) look dangerous.