The season’s best sprinters are on show at Flemington Racecourse in this weekend’s Black Caviar Lightning 2018, tips and the updated betting odds for the short-distance showdown found below.

Odds-on favourite Redzel is the horse to beat in 2018 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes betting fresh on Saturday at Flemington Racecourse. Photo: Steve Hart.

Winx may be performing in a simulated race in Sydney on Saturday, but there is no denying the Melbourne hype at Flemington with Redzel returning in the Group 1 $750,000 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m).

Win number seven on the trot calls for the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained champion whose latest two spring runs produced victories in The Everest and Darley Classic in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

Undefeated down the Flemington straight, brilliant first-up, trialling in outstanding order and a 1000m specialist – Redzel is deserving of his $1.80 odds-on quote in Black Caviar Lightning betting at Ladbrokes.com.au.

The bookies rate the foreseeable dangers as last year’s winner Terravista who has been backed in from $9.50 to $8 to salute first-up after the Darley Classic second to Redzel here during the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the returning Ladbrokes Manikato Stakes winning four-year-old Hey Doc ($9).

All 10 Black Caviar Lightning horses are first-up on the weekend boasting imposing fresh records, so will the Redzel win be as easy as the markets suggest?

Earlier we published our comprehensive Black Caviar Lightning 2018 Form Guide & Betting Preview, our below tips based on the race facts and stats uncovered there.

1^st

#1 Redzel ($1.80)

There is no value in the race this year with Redzel odds-on and the horse to beat. All boxes are ticked by this $7.79 million earner who has won his last six on the trot including the Group 1 Doomben 10,000, inaugural The Everest and the Darley Classic. He is unbeaten at Flemington (5:2-2-0), loves the 1000m (5:2-2-0) and flies fresh (6:3-2-0). Could not have been more impressive in his two lead-up trials at Rosehill and he is the country’s premier sprinter. Is the only five-year-old in the race and statistically that stacks up, as does the fact that four favourites since 2011 have saluted for the punters in this race.

2^nd

#2 Terravista ($8)

Happy to follow the money trail for a place by the reigning Joe Pride-trained Black Caviar Lightning winner Terravista. Eight-year-olds don’t win this race and he probably won’t beat Redzel, but there won’t be as much in the finish as the markets suggest. He scored the upset last year and was runner-up the year before so this is a race he knows well. Another really impressive first-up horse (10:6-2-1) and he’s got plenty of form here. Gets a gun run from barrier four and the lead-up trial at Warwick farm at the start of the month was good. The danger.

3^rd

#9 Super Too ($21)

There’s big odds on offer for the rest of the field and that opens up value in the trifecta. One of the over-priced staters shapes-up as this ultra-speedy Marc Conners-trained daughter of Hinchinbrook. Four-year-olds have a top recent record in the race, as do the mares with five wins from 2007 – 2017 for the girls. Gate five looks ideal and she is the genuine 1000m specialist in the field (7:5-1-0). Tougher field than she is used to, but comes in with back-to-back winning Warwick Farm trials and she’s proven the Melbourne way.

Now is the time to back our exclusive Black Caviar Lightning Stakes Tips for 2018 at the right price through Ladbrokes.com.au.