It is a tight 2020 Canterbury Stakes betting market this Saturday at Royal Randwick with Gerald Ryan’s smart young colt Standout the narrow favourite to hold off two quality Godolphin-raced mares in the feature.

Just seven weight-for-age horses line-up in this year’s Group 1 $500,000 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) on Randwick Guineas Day including Exceed And Excel colt Standout in barrier five.

Tommy Berry rides the top elect for last year’s Canterbury Stakes winning trainer Ryan who saddled-up Trapeze Artist (2019) to success 12 months ago.

Berry was aboard classy chestnut Standout first-up at the track on February 1 when the up-and-comer defeated Alizee home to win the Group 2 Expressway Stakes (1200m) by one and a half lengths.

Standout now races over further than that distance for the first time in the Canterbury Stakes looking to add to his excellent strike-rate (5:4-1-0) on the back of a winning Rosehill 1030m trial on February 25.

The latest Canterbury Stakes odds at Ladbrokes.com.au have the three-year-old as the one to beat at $2.70 looking to become the 14^th favourite to win the race since 1996.

“He has been going good since his last run, we are really happy with him,” Ryan told Racenet through the week.

“People are saying this is not a very strong Group I but there is three Group I winners in the race so it’s a good race.”

The only query around Standout is how he will handle the likely Heavy-rated Randwick track on the weekend with the three-year-old never racing on worse than Good going.

“If it got to the Heavy range we would have to start looking at options of heading to Melbourne or maybe The Galaxy but we haven’t decided any of that yet,” Ryan said.

“His brother (Outreach) trialled OK on a Soft (6) and his sister (Overreach) won the Golden Slipper on a Soft (7) so we know the family handles soft.

“But about three Saturday’s ago we worked on the grass and it was Heavy. Our trackwork rider came back in and she said he went no good at all on it.

“You can’t get a guide from trackwork to raceday but we would have to see.”

Little separates the impressive Expressway Stakes winner from the James Cummings-trained stablemates Alizee and Savatiano however with the in-form mares paying $3.80 and $3 respectively.

Alizee is out to turn the tables after the Sepoy mare finished second as the beaten odds-on favourite fresh in the Expressway.

She raced again at Randwick on February 15 to win the Group 2 Apollo Stakes (1400m) and is not looking to complete the Apollo – Canterbury Stakes double for the first time since another smart mare achieved the feat – Appearance (2014) – six years ago.

Also coming off a lead-up Group 2 win for Cummings and the Royal Blue brigade is five-year-old Street Cry mare Savatiano who took out the Millie Fox Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill on February 22.

Savatiano was nearly three lengths clear of the next best over the line first-up in the Millie Fox Stakes and is the early market mover to continue her winning ways when going up in grade for the Canterbury Stakes.

Click here for the latest Canterbury Stakes 2020 betting markets courtesy of Ladbrokes.com.au.

2020 Canterbury Stakes Field & Barriers

#	Form (Last 10)	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Hcp. Rating
1	1200x6101x	MISTER SEA WOLF (IRE)	Chris Waller	Brenton Avdulla	4	59kg	111
2	x110x9358x	THE BOSTONIAN (NZ)	Tony Pike	Nash Rawiller	1	59kg	110
3	111x161x77	BEGOOD TOYA MOTHER	Daniel Bowman	Declan Bates	3	59kg	107
4	06x1374x21	ALIZEE	James Cummings	Hugh Bowman	7	57kg	115
5	213x4101x1	SAVATIANO	James Cummings	James McDonald	2	57kg	112
6	x610190x32	WHITE MOSS	Jason Coyle	Ms Kathy O’Hara	6	57kg	107
7	1112×1	STANDOUT	Gerald Ryan	Tommy Berry	5	56kg	104