RACE COMMENT

OVERVIEW: What a cracking way to start the night at Melton, with a wide-open free-for-all pacing contest where most have claims. There does appear to be plenty of tempo in this race given most of the key chances are either drawn on the back row or out wide off the front, and I’ll take a slight leaning to SIR JIMMY (10) third-up from a break. He was a dominant winner first-up from the front here on July 18 and then unleashed a sizzling 54.12 last half from the rear to run second behind stablemate The Art Of Success recently. He’s flying and has come up each-way odds, so looks a nice play. CATCH A WAVE (7) comes up with the front row draw for the first time in a campaign where he hasn’t had races run to suit and there’s a chance he presses forward and finds the front. From there, over the 1720m, he’d be a huge player. HOORAH PHILTRA (9) is airborne and continued his great form with a fast-finishing second last weekend to Fairplay, while FIGHTER COMMAND (11) returns to Melton after a Brisbane campaign where he won a heat of the Inter Dominion and ran fifth in the final. He’s a good horse. TRIPLE EIGHT (2) is one at odds that I think will run well from a good draw, while it’s great to see arguably the country’s most popular horse, BULLETPROOF BOY (12), back at the races, but he heads in without a trial and a horror draw so he’d need to produce something special.