Horse racing / Ben Asgari / 25 March 2010 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Ben Asgari takes a quick look at the quality racing this Friday at both Albury and Moonee Valley.

This Friday promises to be a quality day of racing, with both the feature Albury Cup meeting Friday afternoon and the Moonee Valley Stayers Challenge Final and its support card later that night.

The Commercial Club Albury Gold Cup offers prize money of $170 000 and has attracted a high class field of gallopers, headlined by the David Hayes-trained top weight Growl.

Drawn in barrier 10 for Brad Rawiller, Growl will carry 58.5kg, a significant 4kg more than the next highest weighted runner the Chris Waller-trained Come On Cugat.

Growl must be given a major chance, despite his top weight, as his best form is undoubtedly superior to that of his rivals. His last start eleventh in the Group 1 Australian Cup, when only beaten 4.7 lengths, is probably good enough to see him in the finish here, and if he could reproduce his dominant effort in the Hobart Cup three starts ago, he would be the one to beat.

In an otherwise extremely open race, Hawks Bay, Come on Cugat and Deltona all look to have each way hopes, while the Richard Freyer-trained Leica Larrikin could be a surprise improver at big odds.

The main support race to the Albury Cup is the TAB Flat Knacker Handicap over 900 metres. In this race, the horse that creates the most interest is arguably Australia's fastest horse in training, the Daryl Cannon-trained Alexander Beetle.

Having only previously raced once over the 900 metres on an unsuitably heavy track, it will be interesting to see whether any of the other speedsters can match 'the beetle' for early speed and whether or not there is anything left in the tank at the end of the 900 metres.

Turning our attention to Moonee Valley later that night, the best bet on the card looks to be quite early for punters in Race 2, the Pulse Pharmacy Handicap over 1600 metres. The lightly-raced Zabeel gelding Sherpa Tenzig should prove far too good for his rivals in this 0-72 rated event.

Sherpa Tenzig showed he had come back in great form after notably being gelded before his ripping first up run last start at Flemington, making up massive ground in the straight to finish only 2.7 lengths behind the classy Stillme.

The extra 200 metres this week as well as the smaller field should see Sherpa Tenzig very hard to hold out.