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We’re heading to the tight-turning Canterbury track tonight with four serious chances. 

Emma Reeves aids us with programming and identifies who she thinks is the best placed horse each weekend.  Miss Chanel, Saturday 14th February, Royal Randwick, Race 3: While this is imperfect as she is taking on the boys, one of whom is a winner and finished in front of her on debut, I am attempting not to repeat the same stories and horses each week and I think this one is interesting. This filly put in an, albeit short, career best effort last time out when running second by a little over a quarter of a length in Group 3 company. That was against the girls but the ratings gurus marked that run very highly and, outside of the top one who carries a 1.5kg penalty for that win, I do not think there is a huge amount of depth here. A win would not only make her a very valuable Saturday winning, Group 3 placed two year old, but it would also get her prizemoney up to over $140,000 which almost certainly gains her a start in the Golden Slipper, giving us the flexibility to do whatever is right by her en route to the big one. I think the boys will need to bring their A game to get past this filly.

FRIDAY 20th FEBRUARY - CANTERBURYRail Position: +4M Entire FARFETCHED, Race 1, 1250m, 6.00pm, T Clark, 56.5kgFarfetched has run two excellent races thus far this preparation. She didn’t shirk her task when finishing third at Warwick Farm most recently, and she shaped as though she’ll relish this step up to 1250 metres so it’s got the potential to bring about plenty of improvement third-up. She’s got the speed to roll forward from barrier 9 and get across into a more favourable inside position, and Canterbury’s a track where we have a lot of success so we expect her to go well here. There are two older horses in opposition and it can be hard to beat them, but she deserves her place in the field and we see no reason why she won’t be fighting out the finish once again.FARINDIRA, Race 1, 1250m, 6.00pm, A Hyeronimus, 58.5kgFarindira is in great shape ahead of his first career start. His two trials have given him the right fitness grounding, and we think he’ll be well suited by the 1250 metres first-up as he might just be a bit outpaced over anything shorter. He’s drawn a lovely barrier in 4, so Adam should be able to roll forward from there and race on pace without having to do too much work, and Canterbury’s a track where we have a lot of success so we expect him to go well here. There are two older horses in opposition and it can be hard to beat them, but he deserves his place in the field to show us what he’s capable of and we hope to see him give this a good shake to get his career off to an encouraging start.ALBANY ROAD, Race 7, 1250m, 9.00pm, R Bayliss, 59kgAlbany Road has been a revelation this preparation. He proved his first-up win at Kensington was no fluke when getting up to win in the last stride over 1100 metres at this track three weeks ago, so he’s really turned over a new leaf since returning two stone lighter. He contests the same grade of race here, but this field has slightly more depth to it than the race he contested last time so it is going to be tougher, as he’s also gone up in the weights too and carries 4kg more here with 59kg on his back. However, he’s a most progressive gelding who’s improving each time we raise the bar for him so we think he’s up to the challenge. He’s drawn to the outside in barrier 9, but Regan knows him well and he’s been riding him with cover this preparation so we expect him to repeat that here and slot in to get a tow into the race. Being ridden this way demands a certain amount of luck in running, but the step up to 1250 metres is a big positive because he’s needed every yard of the 1100 metres to win his races this time in. As such, he will relish it and we think it has the potential to bring about further improvement. He’s full of confidence and if he can keep climbing the ladder we see no reason why he won’t be fighting out the finish once again. FRIDAY 20th FEBRUARY - CANBERRARail Position: True ZOUFIELD, Race 5, 1400m, 3.11pm, W Costin, 59.5kgZoufield is delighting us ahead of his first-up run. He’s had three trials so he’s a fit as he can be, and he had blinkers on in his most recent one which he retains for race day to ensure he’s as focused as possible. He was an impressive winner on debut last preparation so we know he goes well first-up, and he's been gelded since then too which can bring about significant improvement. This is a lovely starting point for him against his own age group, so whilst it's at Canberra it is worth $40k which is well above average for the track and we are keen to seize the opportunity before raising his sights as he gets deeper into his campaign. Winona rides our horses extremely effectively at this level and she will be positive from barrier 5 to try and take control of the race, and with even luck in running we expect him to be too good for them.