The festive season is upon us but racing doesn't slow down, with meetings here, there and everywhere. And Winning Post has got your pre-Christmas weekend covered.

Saturday's highlights include the long-awaited return to Eagle Farm, the SA Christmas Handicap and the Ted Van Heemst Stakes at Ascot.

Our form coverage kicks off on Friday with full form guides for The Valley night meeting plus Yarra Valley diuring the day and the Randwick (Kensington) twilight, as well as fields, colours and selections for Lismore, Ipswich, the twilight cards at Dubbo and Port Lincoln and the night racing at Sunshine Coast.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Flemington in Melbourne, Warwick Farm in Sydney, Morphettville in SA, Eagle Farm in Brisbane and Ascot in Perth, plus there's a Saturday meeting at Colac.

Winning Post carries full-colour liftout guides for all those meetings plus Benalla twilight (Vic/SA/Tas edition), Newcastle (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 Sheffield Cup day at Devonport 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.