Cham­pi­on train­er John O'Brien is ex­pect­ed to walk in­to the Win­ner's en­clo­sure at win bod the fea­ture and co-fea­ture races on Sat­ur­day at San­ta Rosa Park, Ari­ma.

O'Brien will sad­dle four hors­es in to­day's fea­ture race on the sev­en-race pro­gramme - the Nurs­ery Stakes for West In­dies Bred Two-Year-olds, over a dis­tance of 1,000 me­tres on the main track at San­ta Rosa Park.

O'Brien has won this event many times in the past and will be ex­pect­ed to adds an­oth­er win to his al­ready bulging bag of suc­cess­es.

The two who have been go­ing best at ex­er­cise are — With Hon­or, the mount of cham­pi­on jock­ey Bri­an Boodram­s­ing and Pas­sion­ate, the mount of cham­pi­on ap­pren­tice Ki­mal San­to. With Hon­or is the full sis­ter to Bel­la Ri­va, so on pa­per is ex­pect­ed to be very dif­fi­cult to beat.

His quar­tet of hors­es in­cludes Game Chang­er and Zan­za. Ricky Jadoo rides Game Chang­er for O'Brien and he has a good record with first-time starters. How­ev­er, it seems she may have to set­tle for a mi­nor end of the purse. The fi­nal horse in the O'Brien quar­tet is Zan­za and this fil­ly will be rid­den by Ridge Bal­go­b­in.

Harold Chadee, who has a fine record with ju­ve­niles will sad­dle two colts in Whiskey Ped­dler and Li­on Guard. Whiskey Ped­dler is ex­pect­ed to be the flag-bear­er and he will be part­nered by Ri­co Her­nan­dez. He knows his job and could be the par­ty spoil­er.

The co-fea­ture Hand­i­cap for Hors­es Rat­ed 80 and Over will see Gen­er­al JN fi­nal­ly in a po­si­tion to put his head in front. He de­serves a change of luck and this race is ex­act­ly what the doc­tor or­dered.

This event over 1,200 me­tres and though sad­dled with top-weight of 60 ki­los Ki­mal San­to Claim should en­sure he walks in­to the win­ner's cir­cle af­ter a long ab­sence. Should Stew­ards Cup win­ner Ear­ly Bird be any­where near his best he will take some catch­ing with his al­lot­ment of 54.4 ki­los. Sta­ble­mate Mak­ing Head­lines which will find this trip on the sharp side but will be run­ning on at the end. How­ev­er, the chal­lenge to the O'Brien quar­tet will come from the Har­ri­ram Gob­in pair of Mas­ter of War and Af­fir­ma­tive.

Mas­ter of War is a classy in­di­vid­ual while Af­fir­ma­tive is su­perbly wait­ed if ready.

Post Time for the first event on to­day is 12:35 pm

R5:3:20PM - HAND­I­CAP 3 Y.O. & OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 80 AND OVER - 1200M - $16,100

242*1*Gen­er­al JN*J O'Brien/K San­to*60*The win­ner

221*2*Mak­ing Head­lines*J O'Brien/B Boodram­s­ing*54.5*Run­ning on

134*3*Ear­ly Bird*J O'Brien/P Badrie*54.5*Cham­pi­on

716*4*Re­gal In­ten­sion*H Chadee/R iH­er­nan­dez*44*Run­ning on

353*5*Mas­ter Of War*H Gob­in/R Ali*58*Re­spect­ed

124*6*Af­fir­ma­tive*H Gob­in/R Bal­go­b­in*44*One to catch