Gai Waterhouse | Gai Waterhouse News 61854 Playing By The Rules

Emma Reeves aids us with programming and identifies who she thinks is the best placed horse each weekend. 

Sigma, Saturday 30th August, Kembla Grange, Race 2:

This colt has been building towards a win for some time now and this weekend he lines up fourth up over a suitable distance at the provincials. While it isn’t the perfect fit, as he takes on the older horses, this is the weakest field he has met to date. He has performed well on all surfaces so I think the stars will align here and he will be on to bigger and better things.

He rates as favourite and the main dangers appear to be Pour Benn and Jagerbomb. Pour Benn made an encouraging debut when finishing fourth over course and distance at the start of the month. He’s going four weeks between runs here but he’s open to improvement on only his second career start with blinkers going on for the first time, and he’s the testing material. Jagerbomb is a consistent type who has placed in his last two starts at Wyong and Goulburn, so his hoof’s firmly on the till. He’s another who gets blinkers on for the first time here to try and eke out some further improvement, and he can’t be ruled out.

He was most unlucky to be run down in the dying strides at Hawkesbury last time. He fought on very strongly over the 1500 metres on that occasion, so this further step up to the mile promises to suit and he ran well at this track two back so this adds further confidence. He’ll have to do a bit of work to lead from barrier 11 but once he gets to the front he should be able to enjoy all the favours in the run, and Zac’s an in form apprentice who takes a valuable 1.5kgs off his back so we expect him to be hard to beat.