3 minute read

The Aurie's Star Handicap is the feature on Saturday's Flemington card but it's not the best sprint on the card in the view of The Melbourne Mail.

The Melbourne Mail is looking at Race 5 as the highlight on the Aurie's Star program with Ulmann and Duke Of Brunswick going head to head for the third time with the ledger currently all square at one apiece.

Ulmann is our idea of a good bet to make it 2-1. He was very soft in the betting first up from a break in their first battle and a race fit Duke Of Brunswick posted a very strong off season rating in winning handsomely. Ulmann tracked him through but couldn't match the Duke late in the piece.

Two weeks later and a fitter Ulmann was able to make the most of a little weight swing and get past Duke Of Brunswick to post a strong off season rating of his own.

With Ulmann likely to be fitter again the challenge is now over to Duke Of Brunswick to raise his game. We have the odds well in favour of the momentum horse, Ulmann.

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There is an X-Factor horse in the race, French import Pilote D'Essai who brought strong form with him to Australia and did a good job when winning at Bendigo at his first start down under.

He has room to further improve based on the ratings he posted in France but running down Ulmann will require more than what was required of him at Bendigo and there is a thinking that he will be ridden conservatively today. That worked in a small field against inferior horses at Bendigo, but he got a lovely tempo to run at there. He may have the biggest future in the race, but at his current odds there is enough concern about this race for him tactically that Ulmann makes more appeal.

For an each way play we will roll on to the eighth race on the card, a competitive mares race, where the consistent Lahqa comes off a short freshen up.

She's had a terrific campaign, her form and her ratings profile extremely consistent over 12 starts, and it all measures up well against an even set of mares.

Plenty of the form comes off a low-pressure race behind Beirut last time where Kaniana comes up favourite. She's ready to improve but Lahqa is already there and with no reason to think that she won't produce her form again she looks generously priced around the $6.50 mark.

Bet Of The Day: Race 5 #6 Ulmann @ $3.20

Each Way Play: Race 8 #3 Lahqa @ $6.50