Lady Luck to smile on Eroy

EROY could be considered unfortunate for the last month, and some, not fancying the mud on November 7, suffering a stone squeeze leading up to what should have been his return three weeks later, after which he was fitted with a tongue tie on December 5, an equipment in which he had failed to fire when placing fifth behind RACE CAR in January.

Showing that he is still in fine fettle but just unfortunate, EROY blazed five and a half furlongs in 1:06.3 last Sunday morning, signalling his readiness against 13 rivals in Saturday's overnight allowance at seven and a half furlongs.

LEGALITY appears to be EROY's main threat, having lost two tough consecutive overnight allowance races to JAMAI RAJA and SUPERLUMINAL. Since returning off an 11-month lay-up in October, apart from walking out of the gate at five furlongs straight, first race back, LEGALITY chased and beat MR UNIVERSE at five and a half before finishing as runner-up twice in overnight allowance.

However, LEGALITY's woes rest with him being topweight, 123lb, allowing speedy EROY 8lb, at a distance in favour of the quick foreigner. EROY has not been this light in his last 10 outings, including when beating the likes of KING ARTHUR and NIPSTER at a mile, not to mention sitting level at 126lb and finishing third after testing SIR ALTON in a six-furlong sprint.

It's hard to see past EROY should racing luck favour Azan's runner. Wayne DaCosta's MASTER OF HALL had performed well behind JAMAI RAJA but remains notoriously inconsistent.

FATHER PATRICK ran a helluva race with 88lb going seven and a half furlongs on last, carrying SIR ALTON to the furlong pole. However, he's 31lb heavier and won't fare as well but could drag the field before EROY takes charge.