Best Bets for Closing Day at Belmont.
It only feels like we just got going at Belmont this season, but Saturday is the final meeting of winter racing at the course with Kalgoorlie next week and Ascot kicking off in a fortnight's time.
The weather has been perfect all week in Perth, with no rain forecast through to Saturday and a lovely 22 degrees is expected.
Track staff had the track a Soft 5 on Wednesday morning, before upgrading the surface to a Good 4 prior to the first event of their midweek program.
Going in racebook order, one of the better bets on the program looks to come up in race three with the Luke Fernie-trained SPLIT THE GEE.
The three-year-old takes on the older horses for the first time, though she has been strong against her own company despite jumping as a $10 chance most recently.
Her form as a 2YO was solid, particularly on a Good surface which she is faced with today.
Despite settling midfield, her splits were very impressive last start as she was ridden a little quieter than we've seen in recent performances.
She may need some luck from the barrier, but she looks to have stacks of upside, and she can return to winning ways back onto a firm deck.
Bob Peters looks to be firing on all cylinders at the moment with plenty of progressive and high-profile types running around, and while STORMAGEDDON may not fall into that category, he has found himself a winnable race on Saturday.
The Michael Grantham-trained gelding was super first-up over 1200m when sneaking up the fence to take second position in a strong closing split.
While it was advantageous to be scraping the paint that day, it's the splits that came along with it, as well as the fact he's better over further than make that effort stand out.
Coming into race four on the card, he rates right up to his rivals on that fresh performance, with the scope to improve even further now getting out to the mile second-up.
He looks well placed with improvement to come and the Country Cups contender can get back to winning ways.
The Best From The West
Race 3 #9 SPLIT THE GEE
Race 4 #3 STORMAGEDDON
