With The Moonlight swamped seven rivals in the featured Balanchine Stakes on Friday at Meydan, winning the Group 2, $180,000 fixture by four lengths.  

Ezekeil, the 4-year-old Australian gelding, is specializing in starts in lucrative restricted races this year.

After winning a rich sales progeny race, the $349,500 Magic Millions Country Cup at Gold Coast Racecourse on Jan. 14, Ezekeil will have his second start of the year in the $100,900 Country Championship qualifier at Tamworth Racecourse on Saturday evening.

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Gold Trip and Emissary, the first two finishers of the Group 1 Melbourne Cup in Australia in November, are expected to dominate the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne on Friday evening, the first starts of the year for the geldings.

Gold Trip won the $4.96 million Melbourne Cup in a 20-1 upset by two lengths over Emissary, who was 25-1. Both runners closed from off the pace in the field of 22.

Rarely has the Hong Kong superstar Golden Sixty been knocked off his pedestal. And the two times he has gone down, the great gelding righted himself and climbed right back to the top.

It happened last season, when Golden Sixty came back from two defeats with a pair of emphatic Group 1 victories to close his campaign. And it happened last month, when Golden Sixty dominated heirs to his crown Romantic Warrior and California Spangle after taking a no-excuses loss to California Spangle in the Hong Kong Mile.

SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, February 26, 2023)

Elite Power won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in his last start and might not even be the best American horse in the $1.5 million Riyadh Dirt Sprint on Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia.

Gunite didn’t quite stay a two-turn mile while finishing a creditable fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, and that’s the colt’s only loss in his last four starts. A Grade 1 winner at age 2, Gunite improved throughout his 3-year-old season and is a better horse now than when top-class Jack Christopher beat him in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens last summer at Saratoga.

Six Japanese horses and two Americans square off against the $229 winner of the 2022 renewal in the $20 million Saudi Cup on Saturday at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh.

Emblem Road, a Saudi-based horse born and sold in America, swooped to a shock victory in last year’s Saudi Cup, pushing past Country Grammer in the final half-furlong of the 1,800-meter, one-turn contest.

Six-year-old Country Grammer is back for more and has brought a friend, Taiba, his 4-year-old stablemate trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Saudi native Amr Zedan.

With The Moonlight probably has no real rival Friday at Meydan Racecourse in the featured Group 2, $180,000 Balanchine Stakes. And if she does, that horse, Tranquil Lady, comes from the same training yard.  

Canberra Racecourse in Australia is home to the 4-year-old gelding Manderboss and could be the location of his biggest win in the $102,200 Canberra Mile on Thursday evening.

Manderboss has won 4 of 18 starts in his career, and is unbeaten in two starts at Canberra – a maiden race at seven furlongs in January 2022 and a minor handicap at a mile last March.

Paul Lally:

R1 4-1-9-10
R2 1-11-7-8
R3 1-2-5-4
R4 9-1-7-4
R5 3-4-5-1
R6 1-4-5-2
R7 1-8-3-9
R8 8-5-9-12
R9 6-4-5-3

Best Bet R5 N3 Lean Hero
Longshot R4 N9 Vantastic Choice
Play R7 QQP 1-3-8

Mark McNamara:

R1 4.9.6.10
R2 7.2.11.6
R3 4.2.1.3
R4 4.11.3.7
R5 2.3.1.5
R6 5.4.9.1
R7 3.8.1.6
R8 10.8.5.3
R9 6.5.2.4

Best Bet R1 N4 M M Johnny
Longshot R8 N10 Silver Hammer
Play R1 Q/QP 4.6.9