NSW form analyst Shayne O’Cass provides his best bets, race-by-race analysis and a preview of Monday’s meeting at Rosehill Gardens.
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BEST BET
CHISPA (Race 8 No. 14) Savabeel three-year-old filly who is bound for better races. Quality type.
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NEXT BEST
BEV’S NINE (Race 5 No. 5) Stiffest test to date but unbeaten in five starts.
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VALUE
KAWERAU (Race 3 No. 2) Could make a useful mile/2000m horse in time.
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QUADDIE
Race 5: 1,5,9
Race 6: 5,9
Race 7: 2,10
Race 8: 14
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JOCKEY TO FOLLOW
James McDonald will be short, as always, but looks the winner of the TAB Jockeys Challenge.
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RACE 1 – 3YO+ Maiden Plate (1100m)
MRS MAREE (3) will be easy to spot with that Apache Cat-like blaze. A $500,000 yearling, this John Singleton, Clarry Conners and Nash Rawiller conveyance looks to be ready to show her true talent when she resumes off two sparkling trials. COMPENSATION (1) was a beaten $1.75 favourite on debut but can atone. Capitalist and Overreach daughter LOERA (7) has trialled well and the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable always haven them ready to fire from day one.
Bet: MRS MAREE (3) to win.
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RACE 2 – 3YO+ Maiden Plate (1400m)
ALADDIN’S GIRL (8) was the second top-priced lot at Karaka in 2024, knocked down for $900,000. The Chris Waller-trained filly was very good without winning in her three starts at her first preparation. Dual acceptor on Monday, the stable chose this race. Stablemate and debutante BLITZGAL (9) drew 17 in Race 3 so runs here from gate 6 instead. Could argue she was the best in both her trials here last month.
Bet: ALADDIN’S GIRL (8) to win, BLITZGAL (9) to place.
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RACE 3 – 2&3YO Maiden Plate (1200m)
KAWERAU (2) was sold for $500,000 at the same Karaka Sale in 2024. He’s a son of Wootton Bassett but looks to have a lot of Savabeel about him. His whole female lines says mile to 2400m, this is 1200m but he is on debut. EVENTS (8) is a Godolphin and Ciaron Maher filly by Lonhro who indicated her readiness with an easy trial win at Warwick Farm last Monday. NEVER KNOW (16) is in the mix.
Bet: KAWERAU (2) each-way.
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RACE 4 – Benchmark 68 Handicap (2000m)
KOOLIBAH (7) adds a lot of interest to this race. She races in the colours her sire Kermadec, her German mother Oriental Lady won a Gosford Gold Cup. Stabled until now in Chris Waller’s Queensland stables, she has been on a steep upward trajectory in her short career. POMPATUS (5) is on trial at the 2000m and even though he is part of a renowned sprinting family, he’s looking for this trip it seems. DOLCE DIOR (4) is consistent.
Bet: KOOLIBAH (7) to win, quinella 5,7.
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RACE 5 – Benchmark 94 Handicap (1100m)
BEV’S NINE (5) is five from five but unlike of a lot of unbeaten horses, you could have made a serious profit off him given he started at; $2.50, $3, $5, $4.20 and $3.30. He’s black odds again on Monday in what is easily the hardest race he has contested. Some horses just know how to win, Bev’s Nine is one of them. His biggest obstacle is AKAYSHA (9) who has a number of stakes-placings, a few of them would have been stakes-wins with any luck. OUR KOBISON (1) has been flying at the trials.
Bet: BEV’S NINE (5) to win, exacta, quinella 5,9.
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RACE 6 – Benchmark 78 Handicap (1500m)
WRATHFUL (5)’s whole campaign has been a case of each run better than the last one. He’s always been one whose pattern of slow early/fast late is not at all conducive to winning races, much less at tracks like the Kensington but Rosehill over 1500m with Nash Rawiller from a good gate is favourable. TENDERIZE (9) was double figure odds when markets opened and is still better than $3 the place which seems attractive in light of his consistent nature and fantastic draw.
Bet: WRATHFUL (5) to win, quinella/exacta 5,9, DD 1st leg 5, 2nd leg 14.
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RACE 7 – Benchmark 72 Handicap (1100m)
APACHE BREEZE (10) is another of those horses whose pattern dictates where he finishes. That is borne out by the fact that has eight placings, six of them seconds, compared to three wins from his 27 starts. Rosehill suits him; in fact he has raced here twice and second in both in those Midways. TICKLEBELLY (2) ran an honourable race first-up behind Sparring who collected his fourth straight Flat Knacker that day.
Bet: APACHE BREEZE (10) each-way, quinella 2,10.
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RACE 8 – Benchmark 64 Handicap (1400m)
CHISPA (14) was bred and retained by Sir Peter Vela and given to Chris Waller to try and one day win a stakes race with given her world-class pedigree being by Savabeel out of mare who was runner-up in the Group 1 Moyglare, fourth in the Irish Oaks and is bred on the Frankel cross. Bound for better races. Stablemate WOUNDER (9) will get out to 2000m again this preparation but 1400m, at home, is a beautiful starting point for him. SPANISH ARTIST (8) is one-from-one and won pretty easy that day too.
Bet: CHISPA (14) to win (best bet), exacta 14,9.
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Easter Monday’s opener at Rosehill Gardens sees four-times Golden Slipper winning trainer Clarry Conners pitted against the eight-times Slipper winning trainer Gai Waterhouse who comes armed with a daughter of two Slipper winners.
The Tulloch Lodge entrant in the The Agency Real Estate 3YO+ Maiden Plate (1100m) is Loera, a Corumbene Stud bred filly by 2016 Golden Slipper winner Capitalist out of the late George Altomonte’s 2013 race winner, Overreach.
The Victory Lodge representative in this captivating maiden is Mrs Maree who wears the same colours as his and John ‘Singo’ Singleton’s 2001 Golden Slipper winner Belle Du Jour having been purchased for the princely sum of $500,000 at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale.
Mrs Maree was named in honour of the Hall of Fame trainer’s wife as Conners himself explained.
Belle Du Jour wins the Golden Slipper. Photo: Bradley Photos.
“I rang John and said we’ve got to get a name for this filly because she’s due to race so he rang me back and said ‘just call her Mrs Maree’, that’s John,” Conners said.
Mrs Maree will be impossible to miss in the run thanks to her white blaze which covers almost her entire face.
She is very much her mother’s daughter in that regard.
Her dam, Exceeds, was a talented chestnut with no white on her frame except for a substantial white blaze.
Mrs Maree raced twice in her two-year-old season and was spelled after her underwhelming performance in the Listed Lonhro Plate in February 2024.
Mrs Maree at Randwick. Photo: Bradley Photos.
The daughter of Written Tycoon was in and out after one start in the spring of 2025, finishing down the order at Warwick Farm.
Fast forward to the present and Mrs Maree has posted back-to-back trials wins of the highest order, both times with Singleton’s jockey of choice Nash Rawiller in the saddle.
“She’s going well,” Conners said. “Her trials have been good and this seemed a nice for her to have her first start back.
“She pings the barriers well and puts herself there and she’s just a bit more mature than what she was before.
“She had a few little minor leg problems too, so we gave her time.
“She’s very well bred and is lovely mare too.”
Mrs Maree ($5.50) is on the third line of betting in Monday’s Maiden behind Bjorn Baker-trained Compensation ($2.40) and the Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained blueblood, Loera ($3.60).
Loera numbers as the fifth foal of Overreach and potentially the best so far if her stunning trials win last month are any guide.
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