Best Bets for Asian Beau Stakes Day at Ascot.

It's another cracking weekend of racing in Perth this Saturday, serving as the follow-up to the Derby Day in Melbourne with three features of their own at Ascot.

The rail will be out 7m for racing this weekend and with some rain about on Thursday and Friday, the track should be in perfect condition for racing.

One of the highlights comes up in race six with The Quokka winner jokers Grin returning to the races with some impressive trials under his belt.

He stormed home to score The Quokka by a narrow margin for Bernie Miller to extend his record to seven wins from 10 starts, with the Group 1 Winterbottom Stakes now in his sights.

The now five-year-old looks perfectly placed in the Prince Of Wales stakes, and the market thinks so too as he's opened a short-priced favourite. 

While there's probably no betting, it'll be great to see the star gelding back in action with only four weeks to the Winterbottom Stakes.

Saturday's card also features the Asian Beau Stakes, a key indicator towards the Railway Stakes where current favourite for the Group 1 feature Cosmic Crusader takes his place.

He couldn't have been more impressive through the winter where he took favouritism, and his price has been steadily shortened since.

Cosmic Crusader has trialled well since his 8-1/2 length victory and connections feel as though they need to win on Saturday to gain a start in the Railway Stakes, which shows they aren't using this as a pipe opener.

He's clearly the one to beat and anything $2 or above in early betting looks good shopping, with the expectation he'll trim right up on Saturday afternoon.

The most open of the features comes up in the Placid Ark Prelude where Elite Beau heads the market following an impressive first-up win.

He turned in a very competitive figure there and he does look to have the scope for further improvement as he builds into the campaign.

Twisted Steel jumped favourite in the Max Simmonds Stakes, a formline we've seen already stand up through snitzalatte last week in the Belgravia,

He hit the front there only to peak on the run inside the final stages of the race, so there's plenty of improvement to come from him and this looks to shape just as well as it did last time out.

Luana Miss and Rostislav both ran placings in the Max Simmonds at $21 and $17 respectively. While Luana Miss was a big price there, she had shown good ability in her juvenile season and she looks more likely to back up that performance, however Rostislav was only having his second race start there. Both find themselves single figures now in betting and you can easily make a case for both.

The same could be said for Yes Queen who is much better than she showed in the Max Simmonds when getting a long way back.

She flew home late in the race, and she's expected to be much closer in the run than she was last time out. She's also in with a chance in what looks an open and exciting race to watch.

We'll look away from the features for the Best Bets on the program and we'll wait all day for SMOOTH CHINO to return in the final event on the card.

The unbeaten gelding was very impressive when winning the Magic Millions 3YO at Pinjarra at just his third start, mowing them dwn impressively. Since then, he's shown he's not lost a yard with a great trial behind Jokers Grin - who we've touched as a short-priced favourite in the feature sprint.

That all reads well for his return and while there are some handy types engaged, he looks to have enormous upside. He profiles brilliantly for a race like this, and he looks a good play at his current $4.80* quote.

We'll head to race three on the program now where FUNCHAL looks ready to explode second-up and out to 1800m. She was a 20-1 chance first-up behind Essentric Nature where she stuck on strongly back to the inside over an unsuitable trip.

That sets her up nicely for this race as she rises to 1800m and gets Pike back in the saddle, and I suspect drawing away from the fence this time will do her wonders. Pike can place her where he likes and if she can improve as expected on her fresh rating, then this race looks well within her grasp.

The Best From The West

Race 10 #7 SMOOTH CHINO

Race 3 #3 FUNCHAL

*Prices correct as of 12:40pm, Thursday October 30.