He might be so short in the odds he's only a multi-include, but unbeaten juvenile Qiji Phoenix looks the best prospect at Ellerslie today.
The $1.60 on offer at the TAB is skinny, but it is a fair representation of his chance in race 5, the $50,000 Diamond Lodge Champagne Stakes.
We have seen better overall fields in this Ellerslie feature, but don't underrate Qiji Phoenix because of that - he is the real deal, unbeaten in two starts and while there is emerging talent in the opposition, he is the only winner in the line-up.
The sole question is the slow9 track rating yesterday. He won easily on a dead track here last start, but this will be much more testing and they're stepping to 1600m. That said, only extreme bad luck and the track can beat him.
Start Thinking (No5, R1) is an appropriate way to start the day because you will need to keep alert and put in plenty of thought to stay on the right side of the ledger. Overall fields are even.