Racing: Southern visitor should be too brilliant

Punters experiencing pre-Jewels jitters can rely on one thing at Cambridge tonight - Beaudiene Bad Babe's appetite.

That should be enough to suggest she will overcame the outside draw in the mares' free-for-all.

The lowly $8000 race doubles as the main lead-up to the 4-year-old mares' division of the Harness Jewels, which is just nine days away.

Four of the favourites for that division line up tonight but therein lies the problem for punters.

Tonight's race is worth virtually nothing, compared with the $200,000 on offer at the Jewels, so will the trainers and drivers involved really care who wins?

But Beaudiene Bad Babe's champion driver Dexter Dunn says motivation won't be a problem for he and trainer Murray Brown.

"She is a very good-doing mare who would get fat in a concrete paddock," said Dunn.

"So Murray will want her to have a decent run this week to keep her right up to speed for the Jewels."

Beaudiene Bad Babe now rates behind Kiwi Ingenuity as potentially the second-best mare in the country, winning a string of races in her native Southland but also having beaten some of her key rivals tonight in the group two Mares' Championship at Addington in February.

She has won a remarkable 19 races and is a $1.80 favourite for the Jewels.

"She has been well placed and in a lot of her races she has sat off the speed and simply been too quick for them," says Dunn.

"But she also has stamina and I think if she has to move and sit parked she can do that and still win."

That tactical flexibility will be crucial not only tonight but next week at the Jewels, with coming from behind the first half of the field to win nearly impossible at Cambridge.

Tonight Beaudiene Bad Babe meets the well-performed Mark Jones stablemates Telemecanique and Crystal Star, both of whom have shown enough this season to suggest they could win with the right run.

An interesting newcomer to the north is Indrah, who has high speed and could be suited by sitting just off a fast pace.

While the mares' race is the best Jewels trial tonight, there will also be plenty of interest in race four, where two of the best 3-year-olds in the Jewels go up against future open-classer Romulus, who will contest the 4-year-old male pacing division.

Franco Jamar makes his northern debut after some wonderful autumn form which culminated in him winning the Southern Supremacy.

He doesn't look ideally placed from barrier one though, as he has not shown a lot of gate speed and looks certain to be crossed.

That leaves Sir Lincoln as the most natural leader in the race and he will be looking to return to the form which saw him set a national age group record in the Waikato Guineas on this track and distance in January.

At his best he will be very hard to catch because he is a powerful front runner but he has had autumn viral problems, so the jury is still out on whether he is back to his most potent.

That opens the door for Romulus, who was the bravest of fourths after a hard run in the Taylor Mile two starts ago.

"I thought he was great there and that is him, he can do work and still be very hard to beat," said Dunn.

He plans to use those tactics tonight to outstay his younger opponents.

"I think having a year on Sir Lincoln and Franco Jamar will help so I won't be scared to come around and put some pressure on. I think he can do that and still win."

With the final qualifying for the Jewels completed the next big step will be the release of the official 12 starters and one emergency for each heat tomorrow.

Then, several key contenders will travel to Cambridge for their final public workouts on Saturday morning.