This week's Winning Post is online NOW here.

The purists' day has arrived, and 5500 lucky souls will be on course to see it.

Crowds are set to return to Melbourne racing on Victoria Derby day, when they and home viewers are faced an equine feast.

As intriguing as the derby itself is that day's shorter Group 1 for three-year-olds, the Coolmore Stud Stakes, where the Mick Price and Michael Kent junior-trained Extreme Warrior will be looking to back up his breathtaking win in the recent Blue Sapphire.

The staying three-year-olds duke it out in the derby, the miler mares match motors in the Empire Rose and the handicap milers face off in the Cantala Stakes.

The day's richest race, however, is at Rosehill, where the cream of our four-year-old sprinter/milers battle for $7.5 million in the Golden Eagle. Other highlights include the $1 million Winners Stakes and the $700,000 Four Pillars Midway for provincial horses and small city stables.

Meanwhile the Perth carnival continues to ramp up with the Prince of Wales and the Asian Beau.

Sunday sees cup meetings at Mornington (Peninsula Cup), Mortlake and Goulburn, and we've goot full form guides for all three.

Our form coverage kicks off on Friday with a full form guide for Cranbourne, plus fields, colours and tips for the other Friday TAB meetings.

The metro racing this Saturday is at Flemington in Melbourne, Rosehill in NSW, Morphettville in SA, Eagle Farm in Brisbane and Ascot in Perth.

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

On Sunday we've got liftout formguides for three more TAB meetings as well as 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 6, 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 online ($5), the crack of dawn Friday in shops.