Gates open for the Racing Orange season opener at 12pm, and Oakley’s hope - by Fastnet Rock from Carlton Spirit - is tipped to storm up the Towac Park straight and give highly rated chances like Gary Portelli’s four-year-old She Brings, Richard Jackson’s last start winner Quietly Confident and Justin Stanley’s mare The Brown One a huge scare.

“He’s as good a horse as the others,” Oakley said of Spareel, which has been part of his Towac Park stables since May.

“He’s just coming in a bit underdone. He’s got a terrific 400-metre sprint in him though.

“Hopefully (jockey) Kody (Nestor) holds him up a bit and then lets go and we pass a couple on the way home.”

Friday’s run will be Spareel’s second after an 11-week let up, with the gelding’s first appearance back on track a promising third over 1200 metres at Tyers Park, Bathurst on September 18.

Oakley is confident the Towac Park track will suit his gelding’s explosive turn of speed.

“There was a good field in Parkes and he came third there and Bathurst was strong too, and he was probably 15 or 16 lengths off the lead at one point and ended up going down by three lengths,” he added.

“We’re hoping for a good four (track rating today).”

Oakley’s other runner in Racing Orange’s eight-race program is Prince Limestone, in the John Davis Motors Class One and Maiden Plate over 1600 metres.

It’s just the second time the four-year-old bay has run such a distance, having competed over 2400 metres, 1206 metres and 1300 metres in his last three starts.

And much like his stable mate, Spareel, Oakley is tipping Prince Limestone to peak late.

“He ran fourth over 2400 in a benchmark 75 at Wellington, which is a huge run,” he said.

“He likes to come from the back, a bit like Spareel, and he was bred by Bart Cummings, so hopefully there’s a bit of Bart in him. He’s ready to improve.”

The main race, the Atlas Copco Cup,  jumps at 3.40pm.