He’s nailed it more times than he’s missed, so we wanted to give you more of Nathan Rooney’s analysis, this time around Friday night’s Sportsbet Pink Diamond at Geelong.

Race 1 – Maiden Short Course

Blazin’ Fries (1) was the quickest semi-final winner after little luck in her heat. She’s well drawn with Quick Strike (2) and Weblec Patch (3) staying in the middle part of the track (see their head on vision below). There’s good speed from Aston Fontaine (5) which can help the likes of Rue Deville (6), Trading Halt (7) and Thunder Rose (8) come across into the race, but I feel Blazin’ Fries (1) is happy to hold her position early.

Race 2 – Maiden Sprinter

Dapper Chap (2) has recorded fast early sections in both runs this series. He was the quickest heat winner and backed it up with a fast semi-final win. Weblec Joel (3) pushes to the middle of the track as you can see in his semi-final. I think Dapper Chap (2) will roll to the lead and be very hard to catch.

Race 6 – Champion Short Course

Sharapova Star (5) comes up with a good draw here after a faultless heat win (below). It’s also good to note Blessed Rain (2) in the replay below, she has drawn box 3 in this race and heads directly for the rail. Paired with Dr. Yannick (4), who is a fair beginner and Needful (7) who stays wide initially, it looks to give Sharapova Star (5) clean room to show her brilliance.

Sharapova Star (5) has been matching it with the best country cup dogs around and went with Explicit and Matt Loch for the first 100m in the Ballarat Cup final only a few weeks back. At the opening market quotes she represents value and I think she will start a lot shorter by jump time on Friday night.

Race 8 – Champion Sprinter
There aren’t too many things that have to go right for it to go Explicit’s (2) way. He comes up with a great draw in box 2 for a few reasons. My Name’s Eden (4) wants to move to the middle of the track with speed (see below).

Jetstream Icon (5) wants the middle of the track too, as you can see in the bumping dual between him and Explicit in the Shepparton heat below. Matt Loch (7) is the obvious danger, but I feel the box draw has given Explicit (2) the advantage. After some time off he’s just about back to his best.

Race 9 – Champion Distance

Hard race to find the winner but I feel Lanfranco (8) has drawn terribly! He is frankly, the biggest loser in the box draws.

He is clearly the fastest heat winner, but I think we need to mention the sectional time to the first mark. Lanfranco (8) went 18.27 (seconds), with the next fastest Navarino (7) setting 18.45.

It would be easy to think Lanfranco (8) will cross and lead this race but with the starting point a short run to the first corner, going from box 1 in the heats, out to box 8 in the final, plus a wide runner in 7 and a mid-tracker in 4 – Lanfranco (8) looks hard pressed to get into the race especially when he didn’t lead for the first 50 meters.

Race 10 – Veterans

Schillaci (3) turned 4-years-old on the day of the heats, just scraping through to Veteran status. He looks so well placed in this grade and has drawn nicely in box 3. Gunai Bold (4) and Awesome Avenger (5) are both fair beginners wanting to use the middle of the track. The clear danger is Funny Old Fellow (7) – his heat win was awesome and if he can begin like he did at Ballarat it’s well and truly game on.

Race 12 – Challenger Short Course

Myall Mate (7) looks one of the better bets of the night, he has had just the three starts for Ray Gilmore. Drawn well because he wants to be wide on the track and will be able to do that in this race. He’s ran fast sections and overall times at Warragul in his past two starts, in Best Of The Day time on both occasions.

While our Exclusive Guest Marquee is sold out, there’s still plenty of reasons to attend Geelong on Friday night.

Can’t get along? Catch Jason Adams’ point of view on Sky Racing 1 before every race at Geelong.