GUN DUO TIPPED FOR COX ASSAULT

CHRIS Waller knows Kolding or Humidor need to show career-best form for either to win tomorrow’s $5 million Cox Plate at The Valley.

The Hall of Fame trainer admitted this was a “very open race” with Kolding ($14) and Humidor ($21) each-way chances over 2040m.

Waller, who prepared the mighty Winx to win four successive Cox Plates (2015-18), said both horses had been working well and he had been particularly pleased with K old in g’ s gallops on the track in recent days. “I am satisfied with Kolding knowing that he won at 2000m last start,’’ Waller said.

“He won a weight-for-age Group 1 race two starts ago indicating he is back to his best form and the comments from Hugh Bowman on Saturday and on Tuesday, following his track gallops, were that he feels better this spring than he did in the autumn.

“Kolding is better with the bend sat Moo nee Valley compared to Caulfield but obviously we need to see this under race pressure when racing left-handed. The barrier isn’t perfect but James McDonald, who takes the ride on Saturday, will have done the form during his time in isolation and I know he is eager to get out there this weekend.’’

Humidor pushed Winx to less than a length in the 2017 Cox Plate, then ran third to the great mare in The Valley show piece in 2018.

He then lost form and his race career was at the crossroads until transferred to the Waller stable at the start of spring.

Suddenly, Humidor has turned back the clock, winning the Feehan Stakes then splitting Russian Camelot and Arcadia Queen in the Under wood Stakes before finishing third behind that duo in the Caulfield Stakes won by Arcadia Queen.

Form guru Gary Crispe said his Timeform ratings predicted Arcadia Queen and Russian Camelot were the horses to beat in the Cox Plate.

Arcadia Queen came to prominence as a three-yearold during the 2018 Perth summer carnival when she ran to a Timeform rating of 121 to beat the older horses in the Group 1 Kingston Town Stakes. But a decision to keep the mare to sprints and aiming her at The Everest and Golden Eagle last spring meant she never reached her Kingston Town Stake speak.

“But this spring she has been set for the race that she looks made for – the Cox Plate,” Crispe said.

“Her campaign has been a steady one, ratings of 104-108-114 had her heading the right way but still well short of that Kingston Town peak.

“Then the bar plates came off and Arcadia Queen was back to her best.”