The Caulfield Cup, one of the richest and most prized races on the Australian racing calendar is upon us as the build up towards the Melbourne Cup continues. Join The Roar for a live blog of the racing, starting at 4:30pm (AEDT).
This year’s edition of the $3 million dash has had punters scratching their heads leading into it, as the race struggled to fill the field and questions over the quality of the contenders has been raised.
The luming Melbourne Cup has had an impact on proceedings, with a likely weight penalty greeting the winner of the Caulfield Cup for the race that stops the nation.
Nonetheless, we still have a solid field of 18 runners, after two scratches, to hit the barriers.
Jameka has taken up shop as the race favourite, and rightly so, as the Ciaron Maher-trained mare looks to stave off a strong international contingent.
She’s dropped down to 52.5kg for the race and is coming in off some solid form having dominated the Naturalism Stakes at Caulfield, winning by nearly four lengths.
Real Love is another local contender that has the goods to ride a winner today. The mare took out the JRA Cup for trainer Darren Weir and has been flying under the radar with so much talk on Jameka and the internationals.
Speaking of the international contingent.
Scottish has been shaping up as the strongest of the European contenders, but the filly has struggled a touch with inconsistent finishes as of late and has never had a place finish above Group 3.
Exospheric, despite now being trained by the famous Freedman’s and being taken in as an Aussie horse, will be right up there with Scottish as an overseas runner looking to take the Cup.
While this will be the first start in three months for the former “Exosphere”, he’ll have the advantage of a Damien Oliver ride as the veteran jockey looks to add to his long career before serving a suspension.
Articus will be another to keep a close eye on. He has possibly the best acceleration in the field for the final run to the post, and this distance is one that will suit him well.
What are the odds?
Jameka is the short priced favourite coming into the affair, sitting snug at $3.50 and is expected to take the race relatively comfortably.
Real Love and Scottish will be looking to make sure she doesn’t have it so easy as they come in priced at $7 and $7.50 respectively.
Sir Isaac Newton is a solid pick out at $13, and Exospheric is a little surprisingly sitting at $14, which is a good value for money bet if he can shake off the cobwebs of a quiet winter and spring season and Oliver can ride him well.
And at $4.20 for the place, it might be worthwhile backing him.
If you have a few spare gold coins in your pocket and you want to throw caution to the wind, Vengeur Masque is paying a nice $301 for the win.
Win/Place odds
Jameka – $3.50/$1.60
Real Love – $7/$2.50
Scottish – $7.50/$2.60
Articus – $9/$3
Sir Isaac Newton – $13/$4
Exospheric – $14/$4.20
Prediction
It’s hard to go past Jameka in amongst a pretty decent field. There’s been a lot of talk of the international contingent coming over and dominating the field, but Jameka has all the tools to take out the Cup.
I like the look of Articus and Scottish to take out the place finishes and challenge for the win, but don’t underestimate the finishing power of Exospheric and Sir Isaac Newton.
1. Jameka
2. Scottish
3. Articus
4. Sir Isaac Newton
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