Racing: Shees Flawless looks good value at Te Rapa

Jubilate (rails) is going to take some beating in race 4. Photo / Natalie Slade

It's worth following your money at Te Rapa if you bombed out on Shees Flawless at Ellerslie two weeks ago.

The strapping 2-year-old filly had just about everything go wrong with her in the stakes race at Ellerslie after a stunning debut victory at Te Awamutu.

Rate her here on that first effort and the $3.20 the TAB had on her late yesterday looks good value. The price the TAB has posted for debut runner Thee Auld Floozie suggests connections are either going to back her or already have. She looked stylish winning at the trials.

Irish Moon (No11, R2) was caught very wide from the No 10 gate at Ellerslie last start. Under 59.5kg that was always going to make it difficult, but he made his task that much harder by hanging quite badly. Back left handed where he finished a fine second to Allez Eagle two starts back he makes all sorts of appeal. By going up a grade he drops dramatically to 54.5kg. Hot In Pink (No8) is better than she showed last time and Esquina (No1) is unbeaten when fresh from a spell.

Zinjete Moki's 4kg claim is going to prove extremely valuable for Jesshanimo (No2, R3). He looked good getting home strongly into second at Ellerslie at his second start back this preparation and should be further improved. Royal Sceptre (No3) is resuming and generally races well when fresh and Enhance (No9) will be improved for her first-up effort.

Race 4 is wide open. From a better draw than he's had recently Jubilate (No2) is going to take beating. He likes this track and his second here last start to Spin Doctor was very good. Spin Doctor (No1) goes up only 0.5kg relative to Jubilate from last start, so he has to be considered. The Filly (No3) won well enough at Ellerslie last week under 56kg to suggest the rise to 57.5kg may not be enough to keep her out of the action. Chances everywhere here.

Joy Of Life (No14, R6) looked good when narrowly beaten coming back from a spell at Pukekohe last start. Being a Zabeel filly she should be on a learning curve and won't need to improve much to win a maiden race. The Show (No2) falls into the same category.

Difficult to win three straight in the north, but Estelle (No6, R8) will give it a good shot. There was plenty to like about her win on this track last start. Clara Jane (No9) is an improver.

The Tony Pike stable has not enjoyed all the luck with Rock Diva in Queensland, but he has a great chance of taking two races at Moonee Valley in Melbourne today with Allez Eagle (Race7) and Popeye Braggins (Race 8).

On his New Zealand form Allez Eagle is going to take plenty of beating against a field of 3-year-olds that are useful, but not headliners.

Popeye Braggins has drawn wide in the last at the Valley, but if he gets any sort of passage can be in the finish at inflated odds.

Today's A$300,000 ($330,000) Brisbane Cup field is the best example you'll get of why an Australian-bred horse will struggle to win the Melbourne Cup in the next few decades.

Only two of today's 11 runners were not bred in New Zealand and one of the others, the topweight and favourite Moriarty, was bred in Ireland.

The solo Australian-bred is nine-year-old Raeburn. His sire Danehill Dancer was bred in Ireland from an all American family and Raeburn gets his stamina through his dam Portrait by Octagonal, by Zabeel, by Sir Tristram.

One Australian bred runner out of 11 and that's after dropping the Brisbane Cup back from 3200m to today's 2400m.

What a difference 2000km makes.

Soon after the Paul Perry-trained Wilderstein passed the winning post in front in Race 1 at Gosford on Thursday the commentator said: "1.14.48 official time for the 1200m, yes we're right into the heavy stuff today." Ahem, when Albrecht and Hayden Tinsley won the 1200m at Trentham two weeks ago on a surface more suited to mud wrestling, the official 1200m time was 1.23.38.

Now THAT'S heavy.