We return to Flemington for three straight weeks of top-notch racing, starting with the Australian Guineas.

The Australian Guineas is a deep and interesting edition, which I wrote about elsewhere in the Sporting Guide and we don't need to track back over that here; but perhaps the most interesting takeaway is that seven are rated as highly as the average of recent Australian Guineas winners going into the race. 

It's game on with several hitting the race on the rise and two of the most exciting colts in the land going first up at it looking to set up a massive back half of the season. Great racing but we are going to look elsewhere for great betting.

It was tempting to take the easy way out and stamp Overpass the bet at prices around the 6/4 mark. His last four ratings tower over his opposition, and any of them repeated on Saturday would likely be enough to land a thin-looking sales race, but we resist. It is also tough to resist taking on Zaaki with Inspirational Girl. 

Zaaki won three from four and a pair of Group Ones in what was undoubtedly a terrific campaign but his transformation still seems a little overplayed. He's better than the British version, but only slightly and, as his Caulfield Stakes defeat at odds of 2/7 show, he is far from invincible. 

But his price largely reflects that and he does have a bulk of ratings to make life hard for Inspirational Girl, however well she looks set to run. 

We press on. The listed Bob Hoysted is run as race eight and is a deep betting clash between the consistent and the enigmatic - we are siding with the latter.

Malkovich and Mileva represent the consistent. They keep turning up and racing well, Malkovich as recently as last week where he was fantastic in a good Oakleigh Plate, and they can be largely counted on to do much the same again.  

Brooklyn Hustle can jump that bar but the mark adores her for reasons beyond my understanding and while it doesn't seem to have screwed her price right down in early betting for this she is still left alone in favour of another hit-and-miss filly in Enthaar. 

Enthaar comes off running an absolute howler at Caulfield. Shorter than 1-2 in a field of four she ran a tame last in slow time. But that might have been part of the problem. She was held up there off a crawling pace and didn't seem to react well to it at all - clearly! 

Since then she has had another short break. Another chance for the outstanding stable to go to work.

We have seen poor runs, absolutely, but we have also seen glimpses of a high-quality filly and it seems a good gamble to back the smart yard along with Linda Meech who seems the perfect jockey to draw that quality out. Let her flow Linda! 

The Francis Tressady for the mares goes as race four on the card and, a bit like the Hoysted, there are plenty of angles and options available. 

Electric Girl is hardly new on the scene, a veteran now of 21 starts, but she was better than ever last preparation, signing off with a career best effort winning the Hot Danish in Sydney and her return said she was ready to recapture that form now with 1400m at Flemington, under Damien Oliver, a pretty good scenario for that to occur. 

If it does, she's about as good as any of them and she catches most of the main market fancies on the hop having had a recent run which they lack. 

THE MELBOURNE MAIL 

Bet Of The Day: Race 8 #8 Enthaar @ $7.50

Each Way Play: Race 4 #2 Electric Girl @ $10.00