Eagle Farm Racing Tips for October 3 – Steady Ready to return to winning form

Apostle should be hard to beat in the opener at Eagle Farm. The Toowoomba-based gelding has won two of his five starts and placed in another two, and he caught the eye at his home track last time when settling back before making a long, sustained run to narrowly miss behind Ash Kirk while putting a decent margin on the third placegetter. He returns to Eagle Farm, where he is already a winner after leading throughout here in March, and comes into this third-up. His last-start performance rated two lengths slower than standard benchmark, which is still the best last-start figure of any runner in this field. Barrier five in the small field should allow him to settle off the speed before peeling out and getting his chance to run over the top of them late.

Last Command should just about be ready to produce his best at his fourth run of the preparation. The Michael Freedman-trained gelding wasn't far away in stronger company in the first two runs of his campaign before finishing sixth at Doomben last time, doing his best work late. The five-year-old remains at 1600m and at the corresponding stage of his previous preparation improved more than six lengths on benchmark figures when third at Doomben. He should appreciate returning to Eagle Farm, where he is a previous winner, and barrier three is significantly kinder than his most recent draw and may allow him to settle closer than he has in his three runs this time in. He has to carry 60kg but looks to have a class edge on this field and should now be close to his peak.

Steady Ready can return to winning form in a handy 1000m sprint. The seven-year-old narrowly missed at Eagle Farm three starts ago when runner-up to Monte Supreme in a race whose form has held up, before winning at the Sunshine Coast and then having nine weeks off. He resumed in the Group 2 Concorde Stakes at Randwick, where he led them up and was far from disgraced when ninth behind Tempted, beaten less than four lengths. This is a significant drop in grade and Steady Ready loves the Eagle Farm 1000m, having won four of his 11 starts over the track and trip. He improved sharply second-up during the winter and has also won second-up campaigns here in both 2023 and 2024. The son of Better Than Ready can push across from barrier seven and Emily Lang's 3kg claim reduces his impost, giving him every chance to sustain his speed to the line.