This is another quality race that is full of talent, but I love that Shadows Of Love is on the short back up from a dominant performance at Kembla Grange on The Gong Day, and I think that she can win again.

The Dissident mare has improved for each of four runs back this time, and actually returned to winning form here in Midway company earlier this month, before greeting the judge more than two lengths ahead last week.

She’s hard fit and Timmy Clark, who delivered a gem of a ride aboard last week, stays on.

This is a wide-open race with plenty of winning chances engaged, but I am inclined to give Akasawa another chance, getting out to the 2000m.

Akasawa returned to action in The Kosciuszko back in October, finishing a credible seventh on that occasion, and he didn’t enjoy the best of luck in the Big Dance at his only other appearance.

I like that he has been back to the trials since that effort, and he has finally drawn a good barrier this week, and he should get every chance to perform.

Finepoint steps out this week second-up, and I think that the Festival Stakes is a perfect bit of black type for her.

The Pins mare has raced consistently throughout her seventeen-start career so far, and she worked home well to finish third behind Roots in the Group 2 Hot Danish Stakes first-up, three weeks ago.

She boasts a strong second-up record; she’s yet to miss placing at this point of her preparation, while jockey Regan Bayless has options in running this week from the rails draw.

I’m going to have a couple of bets in this year’s Starlight Stakes, beginning with the second-up Dragonstone.

Dragonstone returned some nice performances during his first preparation for the Joe Pride yard earlier this year, only just missing in races like the Missile Stakes and the Show County Quality most notably.

I thought he was good, though clearly needing the run in The Warra last weekend, and I like that the team have elected to go straight into this race off the back of it.

The other is the resuming Conscript.

Conscript hasn’t been seen at the races since July, but he returned some typically bold performances in races not dissimilar to this one last time in, and he boasts a very good fresh record.

Little Mix has continued to improve with racing and as the bar has been raised this time in, and she gets a great chance to claim some deserved black type at Rosehill on Saturday.

The Mahisara mare was only two lengths behind the winner in the Colin Stephen Quality back in September, and subsequently proved too good for a BM80 field up in Brisbane three weeks later.

Spaces between her starts have proven to be the key to her, and she was four weeks between starts into another eye-catching effort and win at Flemington on Oaks Day.

She gets into this race with almost no weight on her back, and the booking of Kerrin McEvoy certainly doesn’t hinder her winning chances.

Legio Ten makes his eagerly awaited return to the races in the last on Festival Stakes Day, and it does look an ideal campaign launchpad.

The Exosphere gelding has missed placing only twice in ten career starts so far, and he returned last time to post consecutive wins a couple of sprints down in Victoria.

He’s had the benefit of a couple of trials leading up to this return, he clearly goes well fresh, and Nash Rawiller should give him every chance.