Trainer Kris Lees added Asharani to his impressive list of Provincial Championship qualifiers which also includes Stella Sea Sun and Great Danger.
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Well supported as favourite on Thursday, Asharani loomed in the straight to run down her rivals in the race, which was switched from Gosford to Newcastle due to last Saturday's deteriorating weather.
Yet Lees is far from finished, bringing a four-pronged raiding party to Kembla Grange on Saturday in the hope of taking a stranglehold on the Championships final.
Lees accepted with a team of four for the race, with four-year-old mare Frankely Awesome taking an early market share of favouritism, with Gwenda Markwell's Electric Girl.
He also has Juventus, Enchanted Heart and Occupy.
"I thought Juventus was probably my best chance pre-barrier draw, but there's not much between him and Enchanted Heart now," Lees told Racing NSW. "We'll see where Juventus ends up in the run from there."
Electric Girl has won three of her six career starts, including a $100,000 BOBS Platinum Class 2 Handicap over the same track and distance last start, but has drawn barrier 18 and a jockey was yet to be confirmed.
Markwell will also be hoping to see the potential of lightly-raced five-year-old gelding Pioneer, who has two seconds and a win this preparation.
KEMBLA GRANGE
Saturday (6.05pm, no entry to the public due to coronavirus concerns, TV: Live on Sky Racing)
Market: $5.50fav Electric Girl (T: Gwenda Markwell, J: TBA, B: 18); Frankely Awesome (T: Kris Lees, J: Jeff Penza, B: 11); $7.50 McCormack (T: Tracey Bartley, J: Sam Clipperton, B: 7); $9 Juventus (T: Kris Lees, J: Mitchell Bell, B: 15); $11 Occupy (T: Kris Lees, J: Samantha Clenton, B: 12), Celer (T: Kim Waugh, J: Grant Buckley, B: 14); $13 Enchanted Heart (T: Kris Lees, J: Andrew Gibbons, B: 10), Piping Roller (T: Mitch Newman, J: Winona Costin, B: 6); $15 Pioneer (T: Gwenda Markwell, J: Keagan Latham, B: 13); $17 Hildago (T: David Atkins, J: Chad Lever, B: 8), Karmazone (T: Daniel Robinson, J: Shaun Guymer, B: 1); $21 Manhattan Mist (T: Kim Waugh, J: Darryl McLellan, B: 9); $26 Charmed Princess (T: Tony Newing, J: Jenny Duggan: B: 16); $31 Accoy (T: Robert and Luke Price, J: Brock Ryan, B: 17); $51 Django Unreined (T: Gregory McFarlane, J: Christian Reith B: 2), Musume (T: Louise Dean, J: Blake Spriggs, B: 5), Hercules Mo (2nd Em - T: Gregory McFarlane, J: TBA, B: 4); $101 Winter In America (1st Em - T: Robert and Luke Price, J: Cejay Graham B: 3).
Parker stayer's Manion Cup test
Rising Kerry Parker stayer Think It Over will have his biggest challenge yet against the likes of two-time Melbourne Cup runner Red Cardinal and a cast of potential spring Group 1 stars on Saturday.
Think It Over was doing his best work late behind Kris Lees' Mugatoo in the Listed Canberra Cup and now stretches out to 2400m for the first time in the Group 3 Manion Cup.
Mugatoo is chasing four successive wins, while Supernova, second-up for the powerful Hawkes stable will also run, as well as talented English five-year-old gelding Young Rascal, who ran in the Hong Kong Vase in December.
"It takes him a long time to get into gear," Parker said of Think It Over.
"But he was strong through the line in Canberra, even though I don't think he really enjoyed the choppy surface.
"The 2400m will suit him, he can relax a bit more and be finishing off again, hopefully right there in the finish."
Mugatoo is a $2.10 favourite, with Think It Over at $35.
Can Golden Slipper finally fit Bowman?
Hugh Bowman is looking to the most successful modern-day trainer in Golden Slipper history to deliver him a coveted win in the world's richest two-year-old race.
Bowman partners second favourite Farnan for Tulloch Lodge trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott in Saturday's $3.5 million Rosehill showpiece.
Like Bowman, Bott is chasing his first win but for Waterhouse, Farnan is a chance to take her Slipper tally to seven and claim outright ownership of the training record she currently shares with her father, the late TJ Smith.
While Bowman has won his share of major Australian races, many of them aboard Winx, his best Slipper result was a second aboard Microphone last year. In Farnan, he believes he has the horse to break his duck.
"It's a signature race on the calendar and you don't get many opportunities to win one," Bowman said.
"I had one last year and I've got another one this year. I'm really excited about that.
"What will be will be, but it's great to be going in with a live chance."
Farnan roared into Slipper calculations when he backed up a dominant Silver Slipper victory with a professional win in the Todman Stakes, a lead-up race Waterhouse has used with great success in the past.
He lost his spot at the top of markets when he came up with barrier 14 but punters have subsequently rallied and on Thursday he re-assumed favouritism at $4.80.
Cellsabeel was on Thursday scratched from the Golden Slipper on the advice of vets with unbeaten Victorian Minhaaj, a $14 chance, promoted into the field. AAP