5 to follow at Wyndham

Southern winds might have swept away the grandstand, but they couldn’t take Macca Lodge Kindergarten Stakes Day away from Wyndham.

The club’s efforts to resurrect facilities at Young Quinn Raceway have been rewarded with outstanding fields for the feature race day.

Racing journalist Jonny Turner has delved into the strong card to find five horses to follow.

Cruise Maguire

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but this classy three-year-old has to be considered a horse to follow on Sunday.

Cruise Maguire was the talk of southern harness racing circles before his debut at Ascot Park earlier this month.

When he won and did so looking like a horse that had plenty of improvement in him, it only enhanced his reputation.

The three-year-old is the horse to beat in Sunday’s Southern Supremacy Stakes heat in what shapes as a match race between him and Side Hustle.

Side Hustle is no mug and can test the favourite, but Cruise Maguire must hold top billing with his barrier draw advantage.

On Ya Bike

This two-year-old doesn’t bring the flashy form some of his rivals do to Sunday’s juvenile feature, but a closer look at his last start suggests he may be a little underrated.

On Ya Bike was rated the fourth favourite for the Kindergarten Stakes on market opening.

Ahead of him were Chiggsy and Fanfare, who comprehensively beat On Ya Bike when they met at Addington earlier this month.

However, since then, On Ya Bike has run a game third behind Fanfare when sitting parked throughout.

With the improvement he has shown with racing, combined with his draw advantage over his two main rivals in barrier 2, he looks more than a handy chance.

It is also interesting to note that Carter Dalgety is sticking with On Ya Bike over his stablemate Suva Baby, who opened as the early Kindergarten Stakes favourite.

Ward Lamon

Ward Lamon has had plenty of luck recently, and it has all been bad.

But the early signs suggest that could change on Sunday.

In his last outing at Gore, Ward Lamon worked hard when hung out to dry three-wide at the bell.

He fought on solidly to run a respectable enough seventh.

Before that run, the pacer was held up throughout the run home at Ascot before eventually getting out too late.

While far from ideal, those two runs have seen Ward Lamon slide further down in grade ahead of Sunday’s meeting.

From barrier 1, in a field well within his range, he should take plenty of holding out.

Picasso

A series of trial wins has this three-year-old ready for a big performance in his debut on his home track.

Everything seemed to have fallen into place for Picasso on Sunday, starting with his barrier 4 draw.

While the pacer has been on a winning run in his trials, he hasn’t run any scintillating times that suggest he will just turn up and win.

But with his key draw and the turn of foot that he’s shown in his earlier trials, he should take plenty of holding out.

Add in the fact that he doesn’t have to take on a vintage maiden field and his claims only strengthen further.

Franco Sinatra

There are plenty of firsts this hardy campaigner can tick off if he can win the Yaldy Wyndham Cup.

He’s never won anywhere but Addington, but along the way Franco Sinatra has run some great races at other tracks.

Most notably, some of those better efforts have come in the south and in cup races.

He’s also never been tested over two miles, but the rugged six-year-old looks perfectly suited to the longer trip.

With just five other rivals to contend with, Franco Sinatra can make light work of his 30m handicap and bag a well-deserved southern cup.