Pride's Cool Jakey to tackle the National Sprint

A tough-as-teak six-year-old who loves to break his opponents from on speed can prove one of the best bets on Sunday's feature Canberra program when he tackles the Listed National Sprint over 1400m.

Despite drawing wide, Cool Jakey will be very hard to run down if he gets across okay, and especially if a group of rival runners are sent in another direction.

Stabled with Joe Pride at Warwick Farm, Cool Jakey boasts a powerful 30 percent-winning strike rate from 24 starts, and is a three time winner over this distance.

And with the Canberra course surface likely to be around a Soft 6 or marginally better, he likes nothing more than a boots-and-all slog over the final furlong.

A gelded son of multiple Group 1 winner Pierro, Cool Jakey has had four spaced runs this prep.

He led all the way in dominant fashion in a Randwick Benchmark 88 three starts ago, before feeling the pinch on a biased surface in the Listed Magic Millions Cup at the Gold Coast a fortnight later.

Given a six week let-up, he returned with an even effort in the Group 3 Liverpool Cup over 1300m at Randwick last weekend.

On the quick turnaround, connections wasted no time pin-pointing the National Sprint for his next assignment.

And he may get a real market boost before the starter lets them go.

Versatile and last start Eagle Farm Open hcp winner Green Fly, topweight Weewal, and ultra honest Magnatear may all head to the Group 3 feature at Friday's Newcastle meeting instead.

Weewal, though, remains an intriguing runner if he's aimed at Canberra on Sunday.

He worked home strongly from near the back in a weight-for-age Listed race in Hobart four weeks ago, his first outing since failing in heavy ground at Rosehill early last August.

A reliable weight carrier who can peel off a big closing final 400m, Weewal is one runner who will be hoping genuine soft ground sticks around.

My NATIONAL SPRINT Tips:

1. COOL JAKEY

2. Green Fly

3. Magnatear

4. Weewal

My BLACK OPAL Stakes Tips:

1. MUSIC TIME

2. Miss Chanel

3. Eviction Notice

4. Confederation

GOOD LUCK

@NeilEvansmail