After a luckless trip to Adelaide in last week’s Group 1 National Distance final, budding gun stayer Aunt Virginia heads to The Meadows this Saturday night for heats of the Topcat Video Cup (730m).

While there’s only two heats of the Topcat ahead of us the quality isn’t too bad.

Aunt Virginia is clearly the headline act in the first heat and the market reflects that. She’s been very good against better company in her five outings over ‘700’ metres, this series looks a perfect one to further enhance her profile as a stayer.

The second of the heats is of better depth.

Reigning Victorian stayer of the year Drill Sergeant, the reliable Mepunga Surprise and the powerful Black Silencer are all close to equal favourites.

Tips?

Heat 1 – Aunt Virginia. It probably doesn’t matter where she settles, she’s going to be hard to hold out.

Heat 2 – Take your pick but I think Henry Intention is one that could surprise. Looks like he’s itching to get back over ‘700’ and I feel he’ll drift strongly in the market close to the jump.

Other races of note:

Race 1 – Paw Gunner is a baby but has started off his career on fire. He ran home in 11.92 last Saturday, break 12 at The Meadows and you’re a powerhouse. Big future.

Race 5 – Canya All Class steps up to 600m for the first time. He’s found it hard to get into some of his races recently, albeit trying to chase down some strong ones. Always looked capable of this distance so we’ll see what he’s got.

Race 6 – The Free-For-All. Whenever you see FFA in the guide your guys draw to it. Not the classic FFA’s that we’ve seen in recent weeks and Mepunga Smokey will be looking to take advantage of that.

Race 9-12 – Heats of the Pat Haas Classic at Grade 5 level with the top two from each progressing to next week’s final.