Can Legal Eagle cross the Bridge?

LEGAL EAGLE can extend his amazing unbeaten mile run into double figures in the Green Point Stakes at Kenilworth tomorrow when he has Rainbow Bridge and Undercover Agent to beat.

His narrow win over Edict Of Nantes in this race last season is still fresh in the memory, not least because it came just three days before the proverbial hit the Steinhoff fan and blew one of the world’s great racing empires to pieces.

Since then the dual Horse of the Year has changed hands but not stables and won both a third Queen’s Plate and a third Horse Chestnut.

The turn of foot he showed to win a sprint on his return three weeks ago suggests that Sean Tarry has him as good as ever.

Undercover Agent also won a sprint on his reappearance -Brett Crawford: “Good horses do that, he is not a hard horse to prepare and he is a perfect athlete. This is his trip and he is still on the way up.”

So is Rainbow Bridge who has been heavily supported to stretch his unbeaten record (from 1 200 – 1 800m) to six despite getting stirred up on every occasion except the first.

You would expect this to have a negative effect on his performance but it hasn’t, not so far at least.

Could it be that all his jig-jogging around the parade ring creates adrenaline that kicks in, quite legally, when he gets to the business end of a race?

Handicappers’ ratings suggest that he still has over four lengths to find with Legal Eagle while Undercover Agent is only a length and a half behind the Tarry star. It could be a lot closer than that between the big three but Do It Again is surely out of the reckoning after five months off.

Anton Marcus may also win the Southern Cross Stakes on Nous Voila who really turned on the style when put back up the straight in a progress plate three weeks ago.

This filly has been backed from 14-1 to 5-2 joint favourite with some bookmakers, punters almost certainly influenced by the jockey who is in unbelievable form.

However Candice Bass-Robinson has the first three in the betting and her views on their chances are informative: “Magical Wonderland (best price 5-2) has come on quite a bit since the Laisserfaire for which she had a terrible prep, 64.5 kg and stitches in her knee but I needed to give her a race regardless. She has been working well and looks great. My only reservation is that this is her second run back.

“Freedom Charter (second in the Laisserfaire and best price 13-2) is also doing well but this is just a touch on the sharp side. She is not without a chance if they go quick enough.

“I wouldn’t discount Nous Voila either although it will be difficult for her to beat a filly like Magical Wonderland.”

Strathdon is favourite to repeat last year’s win in the Cape Summer Stayers but he has gone up quite sharply in the weights since and Benjan at 5-1 makes more appeal.

The TAB Telebet fillies pinnacle (race two) is Grade 1 class and it seems folly to look beyond Snowdance even though she has been off since July day.