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Railway Stakes preview

The richest race of Super Saturday is the $1m Railway Stakes which always draws a classy field. Stepping out for the first time on the blog is Nick O'Bryen, @NOBryen, with his outlook on the race.

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The jewel of the Ascot carnival will be run on Saturday with a stellar field (bar a couple) assembled for the Railway Stakes over the metric mile.

We have the local hopes Luckygray, Playing God, Maschino and Ranger up against the eastern state horses Fat Al and Yosei then we throw in the classy Kiwi galloper, Wall Street. Defending champion Luckygray will run favourite but after being shouldered with 58kgs and then drawing barrier 12 he will need a lot of things to go his way. Playing God had a good run second up before his failure in the Emirates at Flemington but comes back home and with 57kg he shouldn’t be overlooked.

The ever frustrating Fat Al’s chances will depend on how much money bookies Robbie and Tom Waterhouse are liable to pay out should it win. If they take a packet on the horse then it will lose, but if their liability isn’t too much then I would expect a solid performance. (editor's note - cynical opinion belongs to the writer, not the site owner :)

As I look more into the form of Yosei I can't help but feel she may have been aimed at this race from the start of her prep. She hasn’t crossed the line first for well over 12 months but apart from her first up performance her runs this prep have very encouraging and if the speed is on early in the race I expect her to be in the finish.

The less classy Western Australian horses in Zester, Rosies Rocket, Mr Moet, and Battle Emblem are going to find this a bit too tough but with good prize money down to 8th place I’m not at all surprised to see them here. Lords Ransom will find this too short whilst the form line around Maschino, Niblick and Westriver Kevydonn doesn’t look overly classy for mine. God Has Spoken is known to throw in a good run every now and then at the Ascot track but there are too many inconsistencies within his form so only take on trust.

There has been a stack of money for last year's beaten favourite Ranger, and rightly so. After one of the most unlucky runs I’ve seen in last year's Railway (click for replay), he gets a 3kg reprieve from that race and has very good first up form. Stack that up with his two recent trial wins and he looks the horse to beat.

And who can forget Wall Street, he's won nine of 21 over the mile including the 2010 Emirates Stakes. However that was his last win. As always he’ll keep his backers excited during the race and may look the winner at some stage however there are a few in this field who are just too classy for him.

I’m tipping redemption for Ranger this year and for you multiple punters, be sure to include Yosei, Fat Al & Maschino.

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