Raf Attack reloads after taking punters on a rollercoaster ride

A talented but frustrating four-year-old is out to lift the spirits of owners and punters at Thursday’s feature Hawkesbury meeting.

Raf Attack, a gelded son of group 1-winning Japanese sire Satono Aladdin in the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable at Randwick, produced one of the worst runs of his rollercoaster career nearly four weeks ago, missing a place as the hottest of favourites in the Port Macquarie Cup.

That run came after some encouraging performances, twice running a place in stronger Saturday BM 88 company.

But at Port Macquarie, having been backed from $1.65 into a raging $1.45 fancy, Raf Attack led the field comfortably before compounding badly in the straight to finish fourth behind rival metro galloper Redstone Well.

Yet when one door shuts, another one opens, and connections of Raf Attack will be buoyed by the run of Redstone Well in Tuesday’s feature $3million Big Dance at Royal Randwick.

Without much luck from a tricky barrier in a big field of 20, Redstone Well finished just over three lengths from the winner Gringotts in sixth place.

Suddenly that formline reads well for Raf Attack, who now reloads in the Listed Ladies Day Cup at Hawkesbury over 1500m, significantly coming back 500m in distance to offset the freshen-up.

The Port Macquarie run had left his camp scratching their heads, given this time last year Raf Attack was beating high-class Tom Kitten in the group 3 Gloaming Stakes at Randwick over 1800m.

Admittedly, his most consistent form is around the middle distances, and dropping to the minimum 54kg weight from a nice low draw, he opened a $4.80 favourite to claim the feature Hawkesbury Ladies’ Day prize in what looms as a competitive and wide-betting race.