NIGHT two of the Albion Park TAB Constellations Carnival is on our door step with another superb 10-race card to get under way just after 5pm tomorrow evening.  

The festivities grow to three Group 1s this week, including the time-honoured Sunshine Sprint and Darrell Alexander Memorial Trotting Championships, while another new prestige event will have its first running, with the mares doing battle in the Golden Girl.  

An event which was strongly advocated for by the voice of harness racing in Queensland, Chris Barsby, an open class mares feature does really compliment the carnival with basically every category of horse now catered for.

Add to that the fact that there are very few opportunities at this level for open class mares, there is really no surprise the quality of field that it has assembled.  

Lining up for her final race start is OUR PRINCESS TIFFANY (pictured), a member of the millionaire mares club, while the newest member of that elite group AMAZING DREAM will be looking to add another trophy alongside her Rising Sun silverware from last week.

They are among several Group 1 winners engaged in addition to some up and comers who have drawn favourably for their biggest test to date, which should make for a quality maiden running of the $100,000 feature.  

I am sticking solidly with the ideally drawn Spellbound. While she may have been slightly disappointing on face value last week, she still did enough from a horror gate to warrant my selection from a far better alley this week.

Her sectional times out of her prior Menangle victory were mind blowing, whereas her gate speed is also more than okay, and she has the options. She is currently listed to be driven by Stewie McDonald who is based in Victoria, however the COVID lockdown in Melbourne could put an end to that transpiring.  

Who leads the Sunshine Sprint? There appears to be five different possibilities with BRIGHT ENERGY, CRUNCH TIME, ALTA ORLANDO, COPY THAT and TURN IT UP (pictured) all absolute mobile flyers drawn off the front, and since the fields were released all five have received nominations from various industry stakeholders as predictions to pilot the field out of the back straight the first time.  

Turn It Up is one of the quickest horses I have seen off the mobile in recent times and has made a habit of leading off the outside gate on several occasions, however this is a different ball game again.

KING OF SWING was dealt the outside second row position at Monday’s draw meaning he almost certainly won’t be in his most comfortable and regular position of leader in the mile feature.

Whilst we have not seen his ability to come off cover in some time, his connections have often mentioned this his trackwork indicates he is just as dynamic if driven in that manner.

From 21 starts as part of the Cobbity Equine base, he has led on 18 of those instances, so it is easy to see why he has been labelled a ‘leader’. He will have to show another string to his bow this Saturday night.  

No horse has remained unbeaten through the Darrell Alexander Memorial Trotting Championships series in the past, and that is exactly what the two favourites PINK GALAHS and HUMBLE LADD will be endeavouring to do in the 2680m standing start feature.

In the events 14 runnings to date, no horse has managed to do the clean sweep, with the two heats into a final in consecutive weeks often a stumbling block for many, particularly those off handicaps.  

The miniscule frame of Pink Galahs was tested to its capacity last week when she was forced to chase extremely hard in the quicker of two heats to overcome her handicap behind the hard running GODOFTHUNDER.

Humble Ladd proved to be a more trustworthy conveyance when he trotted faultlessly to win his heat effortlessly also, with his standing start manners seemingly more solid of the favoured duo.

The locals cannot be forgotten about, however, with strong performances by GODOFTHUNDER, RED CASTLETON and the old warrior OUR OVERANOVA throughout the heats warranting respect.

And how good is GOLD CHAIN? She was a lot more comfortable in her action last week, however after being driven conservatively in her two starts to date it is hard to get a strong line on where she stacks up.

WATCH: BRITTANY GRAHAM & THE BURNING QUESTIONS PANEL TACKLE SUNSHINE SPRINT 

The 10-race card from ‘The Creek’ is so strong and even that I have really grappled with the form this week, however there are still 10 winners to be found so here is hoping I am somewhat on the right track! 

My selections for the Group 1s: 

R4 Darrell Alexander Trotting Championship Final: 13, 12, 1 and 11 

R6 Garrards Golden Girl: 1, 4, 8 and 6 

R7 Garrards Sunshine Sprint: 7, 5, 11 and 10 

Your one stop shop for everything Albion Park on Saturday night is Sky Racing Active with extended coverage all night including interviews with the key players led by Anthony Collins, Nicole Thomas from TAB with vital betting information, Chris Barsby behind the binoculars and I will be out on track with the last minute insights! 

Brittany Graham is a regular host on Sky Racing and the Sky Racing Active app, plus In The Gig with Ben Way and Gareth Hall every Tuesday night on Sky Racing 2 from 6pm.

 

The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.