Expect a Royal Assault

ROYAL ASSAULT has settled in as a full-time sprinter and should easily complete a hat-trick of wins in tomorrow's 1000-metre straight ninth race. Tomorrow's quick sprint should be the four-year-old colt's last stop on the way to grade one, having already won an open allowance in December.

Carrying 51.0 kilos, ROYAL ASSAULT faces Harry Parsard's down-in-class but off-colour pair, POTCHEEN and PETE'SWILDONE. At 55.5 kilos, apart from struggling for form, PETE'SWILDONE is too slow to even get close to ROYAL ASSAULT at 1000 metres straight.

POTCHEEN has been performing better than PETE'SWILDONE, but has also been groping for his best form and has been void of speed. Carrying topweight 57.0 kilos, allowing ROYAL ASSAULT 14lb, is too much to ask at the minimum distance.

SMOKEY TOPAZ and PUDDY POOH should be the horses keeping ROYAL ASSAULT honest from the go. ROYAL ASSAULT, however, is classier than both.

SMOKEY TOPAZ won a cheap overnight allowance, beating RED FLAG and SIR FREDERICK whereas PUDDY POOH, last year's 1000 Guineas winner, is yet to establish herself as a sprinter, landing her last race at 1400 metres.

Both are sitting too close to ROYAL ASSAULT in the handicaps to stop Nunes' colt. SMOKEY TOPAZ is slated to carry 52.0 kilos, if Dane Nelson makes that weight, whereas PUDDY POOH will carry 50.0 kilos.

ROYAL ASSAULT also has the draw in his favour. Breaking from stall six in the seven-horse field, ROYAL ASSAULT should take advantage of the track bias to keep his rivals pegged in mid-track where the going is heavier.