My prediction is that barring injury or ill health to Northerly, he will definitely back up in the Cox Plate.

The word is that while Fred Kersley has the utmost respect for Sunline and Lonhro he is very confident that running at his best Northerly has the slight edge. His biggest concern is Grandera and the difficulty in lining him up.

Of course Fred is probably biased however he can feel reasonably confident that all things being equal Northerly can just shade Sunline and that overall his fighting spirit and toughness would stand him on very good stead against the much less seasoned Lonhro, especially over 2000m.

Fred certainly isn't saying that Northerly has it in the bag. I understand it to be that he is confident that if Northerly is well, he will be right in the finish with Sunline, Lonhro, Grandera etc. and that being the case he would be mad not to start him and potentially chalk up 2 in a row. Maybe he is even thinking that if Northerly can do that, it sets the scene for his last ever preparation next spring to be another Cox Plate mission and the chance to write himself into the record books against the great Kingston Town.