(Rod Gallegos is a leading commentator with Sky Racing and Sky Sports Radio.)

Three crackerjack colts - Smart Missile, Helmet and Foxwedge - will be vying for Golden Rose favouritism when they clash in the Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill this Saturday.

Smart Missile, trained by Anthony Cummings, is undefeated in two starts and understandably has a high rating.

However, I am leaning towards Helmet - two wins and a third from three starts - even though he proved to be a bit wayward as a two-year-old.

Hopefully, with a bit of maturity, and being in the expert hands of Peter Snowden, he will have become more tractable and true.

In Melbourne, the Memsie Stakes at Moonee Valley is the feature and I fancy the in-form galloper, Rekindled Interest.

His form in the spring last year was good including a win in the AAMI Vase at the Valley.

Furthermore he will have derived benefit from one run since a spell when second in the Aurie's Star.

Just for good measure at Hastings in New Zealand, the Challenge Stakes looms as a great guide to this year's Spring Carnival.

If nothing, I am loyal and sticking with King Mufhasa. He is resuming but goes well fresh with statistics of three wins and a second from five previous first-up runs.

*****

CRITICS of the proposed raising of minimum weights for many races should be reminded that we are breeding them, as in jockeys, bigger now. It is an inescapable fact that the human race is growing to much larger proportions than in the past.

It isn't that long ago when the minimum weight for many races was as low as 41.5 kilos and topweights carried as much as 69 kilos.

The proposed minimum changes are 53-54 kilos for general handicaps; 51-52 kilos for Group One handicaps and 52-53 kilos for Group Two handicaps.

Somewhat surprisingly, a few retired jockeys were the harshest critics of the weight rises. No doubt they were lightweights of their time and they are not slaves to the scales.

The same criticism, though, won't be heard from the likes of Larry Olsen, who waged a career-long war against weight.

Surely there must be a health and safety issue when jockeys have to continually shed excess weight. When you look at the gaunt figure of a Nash Rawiller, for instance, you would be prompted to ask where is the excess weight on his slender frame?

Arguing about the weight rises actually is futile because it is a ruling of the Australian Racing Board and will operate from January 1.

So, as they say these days, get over it!

*****

NEXT Friday (September 2) marks the fifth Tony Campbell Memorial raceday in Canberra on the all-weather Acton track.

When the meeting was inaugurated in 2006 soon after the sad death of the popular racecaller, it was designated as the annual major meeting on the synthetic track.

Every year Sky Sports Radio and Sky Racing racecallers pay their on-going respects for Tony Campbell by sharing the race calling duties on the day.

This year, Alan Thomas from Brisbane will call the feature event, the Tony Campbell Cup, and the supporting program will be called by Mitch Manners, Brett Considine and the most recent John Tapp Scholarship winner, Luke Marlow, will make his debut.

The racecallers will be introduced and interviewed during the official luncheon by the irrepressible and omnipresent Andrew Bensley.