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Golden Rose winner Ole Kirk is poised to complete a rare Group 1 double in the $2m Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on Saturday.
In Top Swing (2003) and The Autumn Sun (2018) remain the only horses to win the Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas.
But the Team Hawkes-trained Ole Kirk can equal that feat, according to Timeform ratings expert Gary Crispe.
"Ole Kirk goes to the Guineas looking slightly less ominous than The Autumn Sun, but there isn't a vast difference between the pair on ratings,'' said Crispe, form expert at Ratings And Sports.
"The Autumn Sun went to 120 winning the Golden Rose while Ole Kirk rated 119 when he won the race two weeks ago.
"Although I don't think this year's Golden Rose was a vintage edition, it was well won by Ole Kirk.
"And the race still appeals as the first port of call when looking for the Guineas winner.''
Trainer Peter Snowden is chasing a fourth Caulfield Guineas with King's Legacy, a dual Group 1 winner last season who ran on well for third to Ole Kirk in the Golden Rose.
"King's Legacy has some ground to make up to turn the tables on Ole Kirk," Snowden said.
"But the ledger overall reads 2-2 with King's Legacy having had the wood on Ole Kirk last season where he was rated 116.
"I feel King's Legacy is open to making genuine improvement going third-up into a Caulfield Guineas that has long been a target race for this horse.''
Crispe said Snowden's three Caulfield Guineas winners came in a four-year period between 2011 and 2014 and two of them contested the Golden Rose.
"Helmet won the Guineas in 2011 and he had a remarkably similar profile to King's Legacy, being the winner of the ATC Sires and Champagne Stakes as a two-year-old then contesting the Run To The Rose and Golden Rose where, like King's Legacy, he finished third," he said.
"Shooting To Win also finished third in the Golden Rose before winning the Caulfield Guineas in 2014, so the Snowden stable has an established pattern and know how to peak one on the right day.''
Tagaloa won the Blue Diamond at Caulfield last season and goes into the Caulfield Guineas after a close sixth in the Group 1 Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield against the older horses.
"He was poorly weighted last start carrying well above weight-for-age but he stuck on gamely against a very strong field of older performers,'' Crispe said.
"Tagaloa looks made for the mile and he looks like getting a great run handy to the pace for an in-form Craig Williams.
"He must be a great chance in a race like this.''
Crispe rated the other key hope as the unbeaten Mo'Unga, a threeyear-old he described as a "talent for sure and certain.
"But he is one without the runs on the board that the others have at the top of betting,'' he said.
Article taken from Daily Telegraph, published Friday 9th October 2020, Author, Ray Thomas, Page 42.