That great old galloper Jungle Edge, who saw off his rivals at Sandown last week, is backing up once more at Pakenham - sorry, Racing.com Park - on Saturday as he bids to make it three on the spin following back-to-back wins at the metropolitan track.

Renowned as one of the country's best wet trackers, conditions underfoot have remained relatively soft for the seven-year-old so trainer Mick Bell has opted for another shy at the stumps in the $100,000 Stabil-Lime Group Handicap.

The son of Dubawi provided young apprentice Georgina Cartwright with her first city winner last weekend, and the three-kilogram claimer gets the mount again to mitigate against his handicap burden of 63.5 kilos. He has to give away 8.5 kilos and more on ratings, but will have plenty of supporters prepared to back him to try.

DERBY HERO GOES BUSH

It's not often classic winners turn up at country tracks on a Saturday, but it is at Pakenham that Darren Weir's former South Australian Derby winner Howard Be Thy Name attempts to take his comeback one step further.

The 2016 SA Derby hero had been off the track for over a year before going round at big odds in a 1400-metre handicap on the last day of the Flemington carnival in November.

Partnered by John Allen, who won the classic on him, Howard Be Thy Name faces a tough assignment in giving weight away to handy types like the consistent old gelding Jacquinot Bay and his improving stablemate Another Coldie, who scored for the Weir yard at Flemington on Oaks Day before taking out the Donald Cup last time out.

DUO SET FOR GOLDEN DUEL

If handicap ratings mean anything at all then Burning Front and Grande Rosso should have the $120,000 Vobis Gold Bullion entirely to themselves, with their 12 other rivals involved in a private race somewhere in the distance behind them.

Weir's wonderfully tough front runner Burning Front is rated at 104 and David Hayes' Grande Rosso at 101: the next highest-ranked galloper is the prolific Darwin scorer Royal Request, from Neil Dyer's Kyneton yard, on 89. Yet because of the conditions of the race, the two at the top of the ratings have to give away a maximum of just three kilos to the rest of the field. It should then be a race in two.

REVVED UP AND READY

The $250,000 Pakenham Cup is the centrepiece of a good card for this stand-alone meeting and De Little Engine, who was the only one making ground in the closing stages of a Ballarat Cup run on a heavy surface, gets the chance to bag a decent pot for himself.

That was just the second run back from a six-month spell for the Danny O'Brien-trained galloper, who will stay every yard of the 2500 metres. In fact, he would probably like it further.

It could be a close thing between him and Grey Lion, third that day just ahead of De Little Engine. The pair meet on identical weight terms but preferance is for the former who might have more scope for improvement third up from a spell.

BART GETS A NOD AND A WINK

If I could own any horse in training bar Winx, then Black Heart Bart would feature high on my list. Tough, game, consistent, genuine, Bart always runs with distinction in the highest class races. He gets the opportunity to add to his group 1 tally in the $1 million 1800-metre Kingston Town Classic back at Ascot in Perth, where it all began for him before he moved east to the Weir camp. He will, however, have to reverse Railway Stakes form with winner Great Shot and see off a number of others who also ran in that group 1 1600-metre contest a fortnight ago.