Excitement is building in the lead-up to the richest race in Australian history, the $13 million Everest at Randwick this Saturday.

The slot-holders have picked their runners and the trainers have those horses primed to peak.

The Everest is even more wide-open than last year. Despite a field limit of 12, as of early last week it was $7 the field.

One of the favourites will be the Anthony Freedman-trained Santa Ana Lane, who has come from nowhere in the past 18 months to establish himself as one of Australia's top sprinters.

Who will reach the summit? Joel Marshall's preview will lead this week's Winning Post.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, the $2 million Caulfield Guineas heads four Group 1s on the opening day of the Caulfield spring carnival. The weight-for-agers who dodged Winx will battle it out in the Caulfield Stakes, the milers meet in the Toorak and the classic fillies match motors in the Thousand Guineas.

Our form coverage kicks off on Friday with full form guides for Pinker Pinker Plate night at Cranbourne, Jungle Juice Cup day at Cessnock and the Hotham day at Sportsbet-Ballaratmeeting plus fields, colours and selections for Grafton, Moruya, Townsville and Toowoomba.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Caulfield in Melbourne, Randwick in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide, Doomben in Brisbane and Bunbury in WA.

Winning Post carries full-colour liftout guides for all those meetings plus Hamilton (Vic/SA/Tas edition), Kembla Grange (NSW edition) and Gold Coast (Queensland edition), as well as fields, tips, ratings and/or colours for other TAB Saturday cards.

On Sunday we've got liftout formguides for four more TAB meetings including Cranbourne Cup day plus fields, ratings, tips and colours for a stack more Sunday and Monday programs.

Don't forget Winning Post now carries trackwork reports for all four Melbourne training tracks, all three in Sydney, Morphettville in Adelaide and a general Brisbane report.

Away from the form, we've got news columns from Queensland, NSW, six Victorian districts, SA and Tasmania.

Our readers have their say on page 4, while further back in the book Shane Templeton reminisces, Paul Richards presents his unique take on the sport, Tony Kneebone brings you his Snippets column and Number Cruncher delivers the stats that matter.

Winning Post costs $5.50 and is available Thursday afternoon in selected Ballarat newsagents, the crack of dawn Friday elsewhere.