Australian Spring Carnival Preview

The Melbourne Spring Carnival and Sydney Spring Carnival are underway and major stars are making steps on the pathway to the likes of the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate.

Top Australian racing site Blackbook.com.au have produced a guide to some of the value runners who could make a big impact in major races at the Melbourne and Sydney Spring Carnivals.

De An Andretti - Flight Stakes

By I Am Invincible & out of a Group 1 winning mare in Aloha, this full-sister to multiple Group winner Libertini caught the eye with an outstanding debut victory at Hawkesbury in April before being spelled.

Tipped out with the spring in mind, the Ron Quinton-trained blueblood has been super impressive in two August trials, cruising to the line both times under a hold and showing a devastating turn of acceleration, similar to her older sister.

Whether she remains better suited at sprint trips is yet to be seen, however, the traditional Flight Stakes lead up path via the Furious and Tea Rose Stakes looks likely and in a three-year-old fillies' crop that is lacking a standout, this girl could be the sleeping giant among them.

Raging Bull - Spring Champion Stakes

Over 1400m and off some very quiet trials, this gelding was under pressure a long way out on debut at Rosehill, hitting a big flat spot before picking up strongly in the last 100m and motoring late to grab third in a terrific performance.

This colt performed similarly at start two when stepping up to the 1500m, placing behind Royalzel (subsequent Listed winner) and along with beating home multiple winners in the process, Raging Bull put a big space on Verbek, who was coming off a Listed placing.

David Payne has prepared two of the last four Spring Champion Stakes winners, so he certainly knows the right time to back off an end of season two-year-old and then reset, which is exactly what he has done with this progressive youngster.

Daily Bugle - Caulfield Guineas

A son of Press Statement (2015 Caufield Guineas winner) is this underrated colt from Griffiths & de Kock yard and one that is seemingly a little unlucky to be among what looks the strongest crop of three-year-old colts and geldings Australia has had in a long time.

That said, the McKenzie Stakes performance on August 21 was a terrific return, one of the many spring starting points for the boys, an event where he missed the start and did a power of work just to be within the right postcode, before peaking late.

He's comfortably put two lengths on Hilal in that first-up attempt, a galloper that went close to saluting in the Champagne Stakes over the autumn and given that rival is $26 to win this feature, the $101 seems madness for Daily Bugle, with $26 available for him to place.

She's Ideel - Caulfield Cup

Although she was just a little outclassed in the Tancred Stakes behind Sir Dragonet in the autumn, we certainly need to respect that form behind a genuine weight-for-age galloper, especially with these spring staying handicaps in mind The lightly raced She's Ideel has put together a tidy record to date and it should be even better as she was unlucky a few times last Spring while third-up last preparation, was a certainty beat when contesting the Epona Stakes third-up at Rosehill.

We saw her Metropolitan price slash following an excellent return over an unsuitable trip in the Winx Stakes, with her now favourite to win that Randwick event and although her Caulfield Cup quite was also trimmed, there's still some meat on the bone at $34.

Cherry Tortoni - Cox Plate

A brilliant winner of his first three starts, this gelding was one of the spring contenders last year with the VRC Derby in mind, a feature he did go close in, but given that effort off a soft tempo and the fact he went to no further derbies, it's clear he doesn't stay.

There's no doubting Cherry Tortoni should've won the Australian Guineas back in the autumn and the bad luck continued before he was freshened-up then sent to South Australia, where he absolutely dominated in the Adelaide Guineas, a confidence boosting performance.

Admittedly a Cox Plate is light years away from those events, although in the current markets outside of the obvious handful, there's a long line of chances that either simply aren't up to it or don't have the upside of this four-year-old, who is still very much untapped.