One of the great weekends on the Australian sporting calendar is upon us, with the AFL grand final, the NRL preliminary finals and Group 1 racing in two cities.

Rosehill is the venue in Sydney on Saturday for the Golden Rose and Golden Pendant, with Guest House shooting to become the first colt to complete the Golden Slipper/Golden Rose double.

Saturday's Melbourne racing is at Mornington, where the listed Ansett Classic is the feature.

Queensland metro action is at Toowoomba for the Weetwood Handicap while it's Westspeed Spring Final day at Belmont.

The Group 1 action rolls into Sunday with The Valley's meeting at Caulfield, where the Manikato Stakes is the headliner. Plus there's a Cox Plate golden ticket up for grabs in the Feehan Stakes. The Stutt, the Stocks, the Testa Rossa, the Jim Moloney and the Bob Scarborough make for a cracking undercard.

You'll find Australia's best form guide for Saturday's Mornington, Rosehill, Toowoomba and Murray Bridge meetings in this week's Best Bets, plus coverage of Caulfield Sunday.

On pages 4 and 5 you'll find four-state selections from some of the nation's leading form analysts as well as our popular Black Bookers, Sectional Stars and Video Stars features.

Best Bets ($7) is on sale Thursday morning in NSW newsagents, Friday elsewhere.