Collett tries to fight back for another memorable victory for Carrington

“He’s been on trial since then and he’s been testing well and he’s in good shape. He’s best ridden with cover.”

Collett has fond memories of the race, having won it in 2020 with Cradle Mountain, trained by his wife Clare. He also won in 2016 with Matt Smith’s Zin Zan Eddie.

“I’ve had good success with it,” he said.

“Cradle Mountain was a bit of a stable pet. He’s still at Clare’s family’s farm down in Melbourne.”

“It was one of the highlights of her career and she won a couple of stakes races that year. I think she was the second horse we’ve ever had, so it meant quite a bit to us.”

Snowden believed that Fire Star was preparing well for the fourth race.

“It’s his first attempt at seven furlongs but he’s raced with a bit of hardness recently and it was a great race in Brisbane recently,” Snowden said.

“He’s drawing to have the right ride, it looks like there’s speed in the race. He likes to go at a good speed like he did last start and hangs tight.”

“He ran second in the benchmark 100 on Hunter day first at Newcastle and they ran a similar time to Hunter so it’s worth a try.

David Pfieffer’s Whinchat was the $3.50 favorite.

Snowden also liked the chances of Applaud ($4.40, race six) and Hopper ($10, four) at Randwick. All four of Applaud’s victories came on rain-affected ground. Randwick improved from hard to soft 5 this week.

“His last couple of rides have been on good tracks and they’ve been solid rides,” Snowden said.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all, it just has an added benefit when it rains.

“Rides well, good rider. [James McDonald] on board, a month since his last start and racing well fresh.

“Hopper, his first run was great. He just dropped the last 50m and wasn’t beaten by far. He’s second here so there’s room for improvement and he doesn’t have to improve much to win.”