By Michael Guerin
Statistics don’t come much more compelling than those that make the case for Tas Man Bromac at Cambridge tonight.
The rare Friday night meeting there doubles as a Jewels pipe opener for some of the better horses on show, particularly in the main 2200m handicap.
Tas Man Bromac is joined in the race by fellow Jewels four-year-old contenders Lusty Mac (who shares the 20m mark with him) and Bettors Spirits, off the 40m backmark.
Winning off any handicap over 2200m at Cambridge can be tricky but Tas Man Bromac’s constant exposure to standing start racing in the native Southland should be a huge advantage, especially as his stats suggest he is one of the best stand exponents in the country.
The Nathan Williamson-trained pacer has had 13 standing start races for nine wins and three placings but its no one-trick pony — two starts ago he finished second in the mobile Taylor Mile.
So his form suggests he should settle in front of the other two favourites tonight and that should be enough to win the fourth leg of the $40,000 Pick6.
Two other Jewels-bound runners coming out of group ones at Alexandra Park will dominate race four, with Temporale and Lemond progressive enough to suggest one of them should win tonight and either could place on Jewels Day.
Lemond has the home track advantage over Temporale, who has never raced at Cambridge, but the latter showed good gate speed last start and could be hard to catch over 1700m.
One of the best horses racing tonight is Shandale, another heading to the Jewels and while he has a huge class edge on all of race seven rivals with the obvious exception of Robbie Burns, his tricky draw suggests he is going to need to be clearly superior off the second line in the sprint trip. So if Robbie Burns finds the front he can definitely threaten.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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