Race Preview
The Gold Rush Preview 2025
The Pinnacles wraps up on Saturday with a cracking edition of The Gold Rush.
Arguably the best race of the entire carnival takes place on Saturday, with form lines converging from all three Group Ones over The Pinnacles.
Both Overpass and Jokers Grin were beaten in the Winterbottom and now stretch to 1400m along with Rey Magnerio.
Overpass ran to aTimeform
rating of 120 (Racing & Sports of 117) when edged out by Libertad, beaten for a turn of foot late but ultimately disappointing, not putting his usual mid-race gap on his rivals.His Timeform peak of 123 when fourth in The Everest is still clearly the highest peak rating in this field, and he probably gets a pretty soft time up on speed here with the dourer ones coming back in trip perhaps not having the sprint to get over the top.
The last 100m will be hairy though – Overpass has been stretched in trip as a younger horse and struggled.
Five runs past 1200m have seen him run Timeform ratings of: 101, 72, 99, 104 and 103, which would see him run just about last here.
He's clearly a much better horse now than he was in that time, but he was still rated 117 (2nd to Nature Strip at 1100m) as a four-year-old when battling away for ninth in a Golden Eagle to run that 104 rating.
Jokers Grin and Rey Magnerio also come through the Winterbottom. I'm not sure the tempo of 1400m will suit the former at all – he did a lot wrong off the slow speed last time and can't afford to do that this time.
Rey Magnerio is half-interesting but certainly hasn't been missed at single figures, basically the same price he started in the Winterbottom.
Then we have the Northerly Stakes form, led by Cosmic Crusader.
He was awesome last week when fighting off Railway winner Watch Me Rock in fast time, running to a new peak Timeform rating of 120 having gone 116 to win the Carbine Club over this trip two back.
The query for him is coming back 400m off a busy preparation, but he'll be the highest last start performance in this field and probably a deserving favourite.
Western Empire is half interesting at double figures. He was no match for Cosmic Crusader last week but ran an honest race up on speed and set a good gallop.
He won this last year rating 116 but was coming off the Winterbottom, not back in trip.
The ones arguably best set up to win are Rope Them In and Super Smink.
Rope Them In was excellent under 61kg in the Asian Beau over this trip two starts back, giving 4kg and a huge in-run advantage to Watch Me Rock, running to 117 with Timeform given that weight discrepancy, also now meeting Cosmic Crusader 7kg better off for narrowly beating him home.
He doesn't have the heights that some of these can get to, but this looks his grand final at his best trip and has to be a live chance.
Super Smink had the right run and best turn of foot to win the Lee Steere over this route two back and was then poorly weighted in the Railway and struggled.
She was third in this last year coming back from 1800m and I think it's a good move to come here on the fresher side as 1400m is her best trip in my opinion.
Her peak Timeform rating is 113 which comes up to 117 given her 2kg allowance which has her in the mix.
Even a horse like Comfort Me could be a blowout at 100-1 and bigger. He's been giving good sights In the lead of late and 1400m is clearly his best trip. He'll beat a few home and can run top three at huge odds.
Very tough race to line up, with ratings probably meaning less- horses should be less likely to run near their best here. I'm against the Winterbottom form – I'd rather be with those that are coming back in trip than with the ones that are genuine risks at it.
Cosmic Crusader is the horse to beat. His win in the Northerly was fantastic, he would've won the Railway if there, and his Carbine Club win over this trip was very good.
He goes on top from Rope Them In who sets up to run a blinder, and Comfort Me is worth something tiny on a 1x4 basis given the map he's likely to get.
The Gold Rush
Top tip: #10 Cosmic Crusader at $4.00
Danger: #11 Rope Them In at $8.00
Roughie: #5 Comfort Me at $101
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