BEATTY, YET AGAIN, THE ONE TO BEAT

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, November 4, 2026

There is little doubt that the Sean and Jake Casey trained Beatty will again be the horse to beat when he steps out to compete in the Listed Fairetha Stakes over 1400m at Ascot on Saturday, but an unbeaten market rival could well turn the race into an interesting contest.

Beatty, a four-year-old son of Gingerbread Man, has been almost all-conquering when saluting in five out of his six career starts, including notable feature race wins in the Crystal Slipper, the Perth Stakes and the Belgravia Stakes (both Listed races) and in the Group 3 WA Sire’s Produce Stakes.

All five of Beatty’s wins have come at Ascot and he has won his only start over the 1400m trip. He is unbeaten on good going.

Accordingly, he is currently quoted as the $1.70 favourite for Saturday, but he has the year-younger Roger snapping at his heels in the betting at $2.60.

The Daniel Morton trained Roger comes into the race defending a perfect record after reeling in three wins from his first three starts.

The chestnut son of All Too Hard has been a work in progress for some time, with Morton giving Roger four trials between late April and early September before giving the gelding to green light to enter race action, which he did with a debut win in a Maiden over 1200m at Belmont on September 16.

Further wins followed on September 26 (at Belmont) and October 17 (at Ascot) … both in Three-Year-Old Plate races, both over 1400m … as Roger completed an impressive hat trick of wins in his first month of racing.

The last win in that sequence, which came over this Saturday’s track and distance, was Roger’s most decisive win to date, being achieve by a winning margin of 2.41 lengths, which underlined the progressive nature of his form-line.

Saturday’s test does represent a step up in class for Roger, but he does have the fact that he will carry 2.5kg less Beatty to help his cause.

Another lightly races runner, the Chris and Michael Gangemi trained Godspeed ($7) is the only other runner coming in at odds of under $14 in the betting.

The three-year-old has finished first, second and third in his three starts to date … with that third place finish coming behind Beatty in his last start in the Belgravia Stakes where he finished 2.02 lengths behind Saturday’s race favourite.

He’s a Machino, a stable companion to Beatty, could prove to be best of the rest.