WITHOUT a standout weight-for-age horse to make headlines in what is essentially an average Australian Cup, the VRC will be thankful that Super Saturday's other two feature races, the Australian Guineas and Newmarket Handicap, have attracted star-studded fields, reports The Age.It says: The Peter Snowden-trained Denman has a stranglehold on Guineas markets after taking all before him this autumn, but the Lloyd Williams-owned grey Linton looms as a threat, evoking thoughts of Melbourne Cup winner

WITHOUT a standout weight-for-age horse to make headlines in what is essentially an average Australian Cup, the VRC will be thankful that Super Saturday's other two feature races, the Australian Guineas and Newmarket Handicap, have attracted star-studded fields, reports The Age.

It says: The Peter Snowden-trained Denman has a stranglehold on Guineas markets after taking all before him this autumn, but the Lloyd Williams-owned grey Linton looms as a threat, evoking thoughts of Melbourne Cup winner Efficient with sweeping wins at his past two runs.

With all the pressure on Denman and jockey Kerrin McEvoy to justify the enormous boom on Darley's latest star colt, Nick Hall will be feeling relatively at ease aboard Linton, a horse of which much is expected but perhaps not until later this year.

Linton began to be mentioned as a serious threat to Denman following the Alistair Clark Stakes at Moonee Valley, a race he won soon after breaking his maiden status.

''He's still an unknown in a race like the Guineas but Lloyd [Williams] wouldn't be running him unless he thought he was up to it,'' said Hall.

Hall rode Linton to victory at Cranbourne when the pair made a mess of their maiden rivals with a seven-length win. Michael Rodd took over for the Alistair Clark but Hall is back aboard for Saturday's group 1 and will also ride Zipping for Williams in the Australian Cup.