• Chris Roots

It has been a big week for Redzel. On Tuesday he secured a spot in next month's Everest and after his track record win in The Shorts at Randwick on Saturday, he is challenging for favouritism for the $10 million slots race.

• Patrick Bartley

After months of trying to curb the often wayward habits of former Kiwi galloper Humidor, trainer Darren Weir and his hardworking staff were not only rewarded with a comfortable group 1 victory at Flemington on Saturday but are now poised to give Victoria's most successful stable a Caulfield Cup win.

• Michael Lynch

Melbourne Cup winner Almandin showed he was on course for a repeat this year with a slashing win under 61 kilograms in the Japan Racing Association Trophy at Flemington, scoring in the style that suggested several more kilos would not have changed the result.

• Chris Roots

Winx has given punters displays of dominance but this preparation the superstar has introduced a sense of theatre about her winning performances.

• Michael Lynch

Star Casino officials will have a mouthwatering decision to make over the next 24 hours as far as their Everest slot is concerned.

• Michael Lynch

Top quality horses can produce freakish performances, and Royal Symphony, the favourite for the Caulfield Guineas, showed himself to be out of the top drawer with an extraordinary win on his seasonal reappearance at Flemington.

Champion mare Winx has stretched her sequence to 20 wins in claiming the George Main Stakes at Randwick.

• Chris Roots

Billy Owen has spent the week with Single Gaze in Melbourne but he will be looking for his biggest win as a picnic jockey when he rides Kinda Tangy in the Picnic Championships Final at Dubbo on Sunday.

• David Polkinghorne

Canberra trainer Matthew Dale expects the magnitude of this spring will hit him when he gets to the races.

• Patrick Bartley

the David Hayes team have a number of chances at the rich Maybe Diva Stakes meeting at Flemington, however Catchy the Blue Diamond Stakes winner of last season looms as one of the stables most important.

• Carolyn Webb

'They're like my kids': veteran racehorse trainer Udyta Clarke has one runner in the 2017 Spring Carnival.

• Chris Roots

There is a lot of Dunedoo still in champion jockey Hugh Bowman, despite the fact he travels the globe riding the best horses in the world.

• Chris Roots

The shadowy grey Chautauqua has never really got the spotlight his sprinting deeds have warranted.

• Patrick Bartley

Trainer Chris Waller has no concerns of the track at Randwick being too hard for his world-champion race mare.

• Patrick Bartley

Trainer James Cummings flew into Melbourne on Friday excited by the condition of his weight-for-age star.

• Max Presnell

Yes the marvel Winx is striving to recapture her former dazzle, but consider this? Had she started in the Melbourne Cup this year the mare would have humped 64.5 kilograms.

• Patrick Bartley

Some months ago Hall Of Fame trainer Lee Freedman was moved to publicly voice his objection against moves to radically alter the conditions of the Caulfield Cup.

• Chris Roots

For champion trainer Chris Waller, the Kingston Town Stakes and Bill Ritchie Handicap have supplied the path for one Epsom winner each. Saturday at Randwick is not the grand final but is an important step on the way to finding out if his charges are up to the highest level.

• John Holloway

The decision by the Keeneland hierarchy to reshape its September Yearling Sale was vindicated with the Book 1 catalogue shattering records in Kentucky on Monday.

• Chris Roots

David Pfieffer has earned a reputation from early in his career of having the Midas touch with the girls, which brought I Am Excited to his stable. Now she is set to further that standing in Saturday's Tea Rose Stakes at Randwick.

• Chris Roots

Look left and right of Takedown in the field for Saturday's The Shorts and you see Everest slot-holders, so trainer Gary Moore knows what an opportunity the Randwick dash is if the hulking sprinter can go back-to-back in the group 2.

• Adam Pengilly

Can Winx be beaten this campaign by another dose of daring tactics? Chris Waller and Hugh Bowman aren't concerned about what's thrown at them in the George Main Stakes.

• Patrick Bartley

Senior VRC officials and long-time members, irate at not being informed that a watered-down penalty system would be in place for this year's Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, will investigate having the new condition vetoed.

• Michael Lynch

Even Mal Johnston concedes Winx is getting close to the legendary Kingston Town.

• Chris Roots

Slot holder James Harron has done a deal with Triple Crown Syndicates for Redzel to run in The Everest on October 14.

• Patrick Bartley

High-class international stayer Order Of St George has been given the top weight in this year's $6 million Melbourne Cup after weights were released by Racing Victoria on Tuesday.

• Michael Lynch

Will the attractions of a Parisian autumn prove a bigger drawcard than the magnificence of a Melbourne spring?

• Patrick Bartley

The final declaration of weights for this year's $6 million Melbourne Cup to be announced next Tuesday morning will still remain fluid until the running of the group 1 Irish St Leger overnight in Ireland.

• Chris Roots

Brenton Avdulla will go from fan to the man in the hot seat on Chautauqua when the super sprinter starts his Everest campaign in The Shorts at Randwick on Saturday.