It's the first day of the two-day Taree Cup Carnival on Friday and I am confident of returning a profit on the meeting with three standout bets.
The $80,000 Stacks Law Firm Taree Cup Showcase will be run on Sunday but the Taree-Wingham Race Club have an excellent eight-race card to kickstart the weekend's racing.
The Luke A Thomas-trained Princess Lottie looks a safe way to start the day's punting in the Kleen Team Cleaning Taree Class 1 Handicap (1000m).
Although winless, Princess Lottie showed plenty of promise in her first preparation when prepared by John Bannister finishing in the placings in four of her five runs with form around the likes of Mr Grumpy who has won three races and the metropolitan placed Uncle Rodriguez as well as finishing runner-up in the Wellington Boot before spelling.
Princess Lottie showed the merit of her first preparation form by winning a Cessnock maiden easily resuming form a spell at her first start for the new stable.
Princess Lottie looks the type that could go on with the job after a confidence boosting win and will take plenty of beating again on Friday.
The Paul Perry-trained Eagleworks is ready to win having his third career start in the R&L Refrigeration & Air Conditioning CG&E Maiden Plate (1250m).
After trialling nicely on three occasions, Eagleworks wasn't sighted at Wyong on debut but improved considerably at his second run when he looked the winner at the 100m but was run down on the line by the Peter Robl-trained Grasslands who won the Cessnock race on the back of three metropolitan runs with a significant margin to the third-horse.
Eagleworks would only have to repeat the last run to be winning on Friday and it is reasonable to assume there is still scope for improvement.
The John Sprague-trained Laurentian never gave us cause for concern with an easy win at Port Macquarie last start after being backed from $3.50 to $2.40 (see our story here).
The factors highlighted in the article, namely Laurientian's penchant for good tracks and the 1000m are the key factors again in the Taree Leagues Club Melbourne Cup Eve Calcutta Benchmark 60 Handicap (1000m) and with only 1kg more and launching from barrier three, Laurentian is the horse to beat again on Friday.
