Best Bets for Aquanita Stakes and Belmont Oaks Day at Bunbury.

The three-year-old's take centre stage at Bunbury this weekend with the Aquanita Stakes and Belmont Oaks the features on an eight-race card.

Bunbury is rated a Soft 6 at the time of writing, though wet weather is expected on Saturday with up to 20mm forecast for Saturday alone.

It doesn't make assessing the card any easier, particularly the 3YO features that seemingly have more questions than answers.

The Aquanita Stakes comes up as race four on the card over the 2019m. Only 3 horses have raced beyond a 1600m in their career thus far, making it difficult to nail one down early in betting. Redback Flyer was solid off a freshen in the Belmont Guineas and was a winner over 1800m prior to that. While he sat back in the Guineas, he had been settling on the pace in his runs prior and it's expected that he'll adopt similar tactics again in the Listed feature.

He and Patron Express look the likely speed influences, but what they do up front is the question. With Bondi Bay being the only horse tested over this distance and the nature of middle distance/staying races in the west, it's likely we see a moderate or sedate tempo which brings many factors into calculations.

Elite Missile has been strong at the end of his races leading in, though he hasn't exactly been running the hands off the clock from the 600m point. Our Paladin Al however has been doing just that and while he mightn't have the Racing and Sports ratings to match Redback Flyer and Elite Missile, he's proven he can sprint hard and clock some fast sectionals late in his races.

The Belmont Oaks is not a race I'm looking to bet into, though I will concede Fancy Red is the correct favourite. Her last two wins have been solid, but she now rises from 1400 to 2000m on the quick turnaround, Showlas comes through the Belmont Guineas where she was solid behind the Aquanita favourite (at the time of writing) and behind Showlas, it looks an absolute raffle. Astute analysis I know, but I'll be doing my best Marnus impersonation come 5:50pm (AEST) on Saturday and letting this race through to the keeper.

Thinking there's a high ceiling for TRUE PLAYER who looks a nice type just seven starts into his racing career.

He picked up his rivals with ease last start at Northam after blending into the race on the turn and staying strongly down to the line. While he does meet stiffer opposition on Saturday, he's run to a new peak rating with R&S last start and looks to have the scope to improve further. This looks to shape similarly for him on Saturday and if he can continue on his current trajectory, he can bring up back-to-back wins. 

While he does come into this off an unusual set up, there's enough there to suggest NO BRAINER can run a big race on resumption.

The Dan Morton-trained gelding impressed in his debut campaign, bringing up four wins from just 5 starts and showing he's a gelding on the rise. The niggle is that those runs were now almost a year ago, and the son of So You Think hasn't been sighted publicly since that outing. 

With no trials coming in, it's hard to see just how well he's going, though the booking of Chris Parnham is a good push that he's going along just fine at home, and he's proven in the wet conditions.

He's a great 'dunno' in race seven, but he showed he was a Saturday class horse in his first campaign, and he can pick up where he left off.

The Best From The West

Race 3 #3 TRUE PLAYER

Race 7 #12 NO BRAINER