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By Graeme White

Stablemates King Gutho and Soul Lady already have a spot booked for next month’s Grafton Cup Carnival but they can enhance their prospects with strong showings within the space of 24 hours of each other.

King Gutho ($9 on TAB) is second-up in the Tle Electrical Benchmark 74 (1200m) at Moruya’s Tradies raceday meeting on Friday.

King Gutho (Brodie Loy) in winning touch at Sapphire Coast. Image by Bradley Photographers

And the following day Soul Lady is rated a $15 chances from a wide draw in the TAB Highway at Rosehill Gardens.

Trainer Joe Cleary has selected both horses to compete at the prestigious Grafton carnival but has room for two others in the coming weeks.

“They are definite starters and it just depends on how some of the others shape up,” Cleary said.

“King Gutho looks terrific and needs to start after what I thought was a strong first-up second and Soul Lady is so consistent and did win first-up before not being beaten far in a Highway last start.

“I’m really happy with both horses and I think this start will top off King Gutho for Grafton. It’s a tough race on Friday but I expect him to race well.”

In a wide open market, Moruya galloper Rouge Lune is the equal $6 favourite and will be having his first start since finishing a four lengths eighth behind Associate in the Goulburn Country Championships Wild Card in March.

Prophet’s Pride ($10) is ready to peak at her third start from a spell after an eye-catching effort last start, while Lang Park ($6 eq fav) ran a close fifth in the same Wagga race behind Lipstick Swing.

Ferrari Girl ($12) is in excellent form this campaign with two wins and a fourth from three starts and is nicely drawn to settle on the speed with possibly Lang Park and Rouge Lune.

The Cleary stable sits on 26 winners for the season and just under $500,000 in prizemoney as the racing year draws to a close.

Canberra trainer Keith Dryden has had a high percentage winning season at Moruya with nine victories from 35 starts leading local trainers Natalie Jarvis and Jamie Stewart.

Kembla Grange mentor Mitch Beer has produced four winners from nine starters at the track, while Lauri Parker has four from eight.

Beer’s best winning hope on Friday could be last start winner Reward With a Rose ($13) in the O’briens Class 1 (1200m), while Russian Assassin is $34 in the final race.

Jockey Nick Heywood has a four win advantage with 11 victories ahead of Shaun Guymer in the jockeys’ title.

Heywood starts his day with the shortest priced favourite on the program in Duke Of Bronte ($1.70) in the Rinnai Maiden Plate (1010m).

View the final fields with full form & race replays for Moruya here