Coffs Harbour jockey Raymond Spokes allowed her to settle early at Port, drove her six-wide on the turn, and she motored to the line, the widest of all runners.

Prior to that she had been most unlucky in many of her races this campaign and doesn’t mind any sting out of the track.

There was plenty to like about the first-up run for Port trainer Ken Faulds of seven-year-old former Queensland gelding Pulse Maker behind Gypsy Ruler here on December 20 and top jockey, Port’s Peter Graham, fresh from a winning treble at Wauchope’s Woop Woop Cup meeting on Boxing Day, takes the mount this time.

The gelding was last till the turn, worked four-wide through the field before being blocked for a vital run about 200m out in finishing third, beaten just over a length.

Pulse Maker is best over longer journeys, doesn’t mind rain-affected ground, and is trained by a marvellous horse conditioner.

Former Australian Racing Association chairman and wine producer in Port, Bob Charley, has a syndicate of Port owners in the galloper, one of them being Tammy Grainger, daughter of the trainer and wife of former top Port jockey Glenn Grainger.

Field Dictator has only had one start at Taree and that was a narrow win in the Wingham Cup on November 22 but the Commands gelding trained at Tuncurry by Terry Evans, is capable of being in the mix despite some indifferent form since.

The query runner is Coffs Harbour four-year-old mare Rare Diamond which has been racing in Sydney and Brisbane of late and is stepping up in distance from 1200m.

But if there is a tactical trainer who can have a galloper make the leap, it is Gordon Yorke.

He obviously thought the bigger prizemoney races were worth having a crack at in two of its three runs this preparation, the mare being second here over 1000m when resuming.

Another top race with speed to burn will be the Fab Art Screen Printing Benchmark 65 Handicap over 1000m.

Any one of a dozen gallopers will be shooting for the lead and are capable of winning but I have settled on six-year-old Singleton gelding Card Games to provide the ace trump blow.

The Todd Howlett-trained galloper sat behind the pace early before scoring a solid head win here over 1000m two starts back on December 7 and has since run second over 1100m at Dubbo.

Howlett since taking over Card Games has won three races from 15 starts and the gelding has performed well in city races without winning although early in its career it won at Wyong, it being its third win in a row in only four starts.

But in recent times it has run two good seconds at Canterbury, one of them being over 1200m in heavy going, so it has plenty of stamina.

Port three-year-old gelding Master Danny is out of his class but is down substantially in the weights to suggest the Neil Godbolt-trained youngster could figure, especially from its wide barrier with all the speed up front.

Scone four-year-old mare Chaste, trained by Greg Bennett, wasn’t far away last start at Canterbury and Taree mare She Belongs To Us has speed to burn and loves any sting out of the ground on track where five of her seven wins have been achieved in what is a tough but marvellous race.