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Group 1 action returns to Royal Randwick this afternoon and Gai & Adrian have a strong hand towards the latter end of the card.

Emma Reeves aids us with programming and identifies who she thinks is the best placed horse each weekend.Watson, Sunday, 23rd August, Goulburn, Race 7: I’m reverting to an old favourite horse and an old favourite storyline, but it’s the first time I’ve had the combination, hence my excitement here. I’m running the gauntlet and hoping he gains a start as we still need two scratchings at the time of writing. He’s not particularly well in at the weights and has drawn wide but I’ve chosen him because it’s a nice example of a horse we’ve pivoted with, hopefully for a sizeable reward. As I’ve previously mentioned, we see him as an unexposed future miler on the rise and these are the exact types that are ideal Big Dance candidates. Once exposed, they carry too much weight in the qualifiers and, if that’s not the case, they’re unlikely to be good enough to be competitive in a Big Dance, so there’s a fine balance. I think Watson is better than his rating suggests and on Sunday he finds a $200,000 country cup with the huge golden carrot of the $3mil. Big Dance. He’s one to watch.

WEDNESDAY 26th AUGUST - CANTERBURYRail Position: +4M EntireCHAMPAGNE HERO - Race 3, 2.35pm, 1900m, A Hyeronimus, 60.5kgChampagne Hero was a bit disappointing when rising in grade at Randwick last time. However, there was a tearaway leader which made it a bit of a messy race and he was forced to make his effort five wide rounding the home turn, so we don’t think he was seen to best effect and we’re prepared to be forgiving of his effort. He drops back to midweek grade here so he carries more weight as a result, but we think this is preferable against inferior opposition before we hopefully explore stepping him up in grade again. We’ve put blinkers back on him not because he’s in any way ungenuine, but just to try and sharpen him up and eke out some further improvement so that’s another potential positive too. He’s drawn well in barrier 5, so Adam should be able to land in a favourable position where he can then travel comfortably and conserve energy mid-race with this step up in distance. While the 1900 metres is an unknown, we think he will relish it and he's yet to meet a heavy track but has form on soft tracks. It will be testing out there so we'll learn something on both fronts. He was a stylish winner at the midweeks two back with 2kg fewer on his back, so whilst this will be a bit harder he’s open to further improvement and he can bounce back and run a big race.FARFETCHED - Race 4, 3.10pm, 1250m, R King, 55.5kgFarfetched gave us such a thrill when gaining a well-deserved win at Hawkesbury last time. She’s been a model of consistency in her career to date, so it was great to see her notch a victory and she’s taken plenty of confidence from it so she’s got a real spring in her step ahead of this outing. She’s stepping back up in grade here and the first run outside of maiden grade is notoriously tricky, so we’re under no illusions as to the task she faces. She’s also dropping back in trip slightly to 1250 metres which isn’t our usual preference, however we like to race fillies and mares against their own sex where possible so this is the compromise we had to make. Rachel knows her well and she’ll try to roll forward from barrier 12 but there’s every chance those to her inside will kick up and make life tough for her, so she’ll ultimately land where she’s comfortable and ride the race accordingly. The track is rated a heavy 8 at the time of writing so that's the unknown but she has form on soft tracks and it should make the race more testing which will suit a mare looking for a bit further. She’s down in the weights and tries extremely hard, so this will take her a long way and we hope she can give this a good shake.THE LITTLE GENERAL - Race 5, 3.45pm, 1250m, A Hyeronimus, 57kgThe Little General backed up his second placed effort at this track two back with an extremely brave performance to finish a close fourth at Warwick Farm last time. He had to do a bit of work from the wide barrier and it just left him vulnerable late on, but he lost no admirers in defeat. He’s racing on a seven day backup here but he’s deep into his preparation so it’s the right time to do so, and he’s come through last week’s run in brilliant order so all the signs at home are positive. The track is rated a Heavy 8 at the time of writing so that's the unknown but all of his form is on soft tracks so we're hopeful that it won't faze him. Adam will be positive from barrier 9 to try and work forward and cross the field, and if he can control the race to suit himself it will probably help him. He broke his maiden in lesser grade over 1300 metres so the further step up in trip here to 1250 metres shouldn’t be an issue, so if he can slip the field rounding the home turn and get them chasing we hope the short home straight will make him hard to catch.COBRA CLUB - Race 7, 4.55pm, 1550m, R Bayliss, 58kgCobra Club did us all proud with a terrific effort to finish fourth at Randwick last time. It was a big jump in grade from a provincial race but he justified our faith in him by finishing just over a length from the winner. He’s taken further improvement from that run and this represents a slight drop in grade, so he looks to be very well placed. He’s going to relish stretching out from 1400 to 1550 metres so we expect that to bring about further improvement, and Regan knows him well so he will let him travel where he’s comfortable from barrier 7. The track is rated a Heavy 8 at the time of writing and we discussed at length whether we should scratch him and wait for a drier track. While he has failed on a heavy track twice, both attempts were first up over 1200 metres, so we question whether the race conditions had a bigger effect than the track conditions. As we have previously mentioned, while gallops at home are not entirely comparable to race day pressure, our data suggests that he stretches out better and recovers well on rain affected going. We’re hopeful that we will get some more definitive answers today, so we think it’s worth rolling the dice. Canterbury’s a track where we have plenty of success and he ticks a lot of boxes here, so he should be right there at the finish.