Wangaratta Racing Tips for November 16 – McEvoy stable set to make an early impact at Wang

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which also feature in our daily selections.

Willing to back Swiss Impact in the opener at Wangaratta despite the filly drawing wide. The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained galloper showed plenty of promise on debut for the Melbourne Cup winning stable at Ballarat earlier this month, settling outside the leader over 1000m before sticking on strongly for second behind Chandler, with a decent gap to Weeping Wonder in third. She had trialled well at Flemington leading into that debut and produced a performance right on standard benchmark figures, nine lengths superior to the next-best last-start rating of any runner in this field and seven lengths better than anything her rivals have produced throughout their careers. Swiss Impact has sufficient early speed to cross from her wide draw and find a suitable position without being posted wide for too long. Even if she has to burn a few petrol tickets early, she looks to have too much class for this field and shouldn't be spending much longer in maiden company.

Strummer needs to gain a start as an emergency in Race 5, but if he makes the field, he can go very close to ending a frustrating run of outs. The son of Zoustar was narrowly beaten at Albury most recently, losing considerable ground at the start before working forward to settle handy and eventually finishing a length from the winner, with a two-length gap to the third placegetter. He comes into this fourth-up, the same stage of his previous preparation when he was desperately unlucky as a narrow runner-up at Albury before finishing third at his home track in a race that subsequently produced five winners. Barrier 11 presents a challenge, but provided he can avoid being posted wide throughout, this looks a race well within his grasp.