2013 Coolmore Classic: Preview, tips and live blog

This year’s Group 1 Coolmore Classic features an imposing class of fillies in what is shaping like the best crop of three year olds in the past decade. Join our coverage here on The Roar in the lead-up to the 4.10pm AEDT jump time.

Run over 1500m for fillies and mares, this race is a wide open addition with no clear favourite. An interesting mix between three-year-olds, older sprinters and older milers creates a unique mix of formlines.

The three year olds are likely to be the most supported, with Dear Demi and Flying Snitzel turning heads in their last starts.

The VRC Oaks winner Dear Demi comes through the Group 2 Surround Stakes for fillies where she comfortably round up the field after sitting midfield. She has not lost a beat on her spring form and she possesses an improved turn of foot.

Her final 600m in her two starts this preparation have been much faster than what we saw of her in the spring. She’s drawn perfectly from barrier nine for her to drift back early and make her run as they come around the bend. In her three runs at Rosehill, she has never missed out on the placings.

Another three year old filly flew from the heavens in the Group 2 Kewney Stakes over 1400m a fortnight ago. After failing to feature the placings in any of her five starts during the spring, Flying Snitzel had her second start this preparation in the Kewney and was justifiably at long odds.

Trailing the field the entire way in the Kewney, Craig Williams pulled her out wide and she blitzed the field to win by 1.3 lengths, even getting bumped by other horses pulling wide. On that day, something in this filly just clicked.

Flying Snitzel boasts just two other wins and one of those was in a race for two year olds when she got up on Dear Demi here at Rosehill. Allocated just 52.5 kg, she won’t know who she is and if she can find the same acceleration she did in the Kewney, should win this.

Norzita was all the rage in the filly class when the spring began. The Bart Cummings trained filly hit the paddock after claiming the Group 1 Flight Stakes in the spring before destroying the field first up in the listed Typhoon Tracy Stakes.

She started as the odds-on favourite in the Kewney where she was given a great ride and looked the winner until Flying Snitzel flew down the outside to steal victory. It was a solid consistent run for the filly by Thorn Park, who may be in search of greater distance as she continues her journey towards the Oaks.

The three top weights of the field are the older mares, but for the way each race, they couldn’t have drawn worse barriers.

ATC Oaks winner, Streamer, has drawn gate 14 and will have to spend some juice early to settle near the front as per her preference. In her last start, the four year old ran second behind Steps In Time but with the big weight on her back, she couldn’t keep up with the wider runners who had been given soft runs in transit.

As the top weight here, she needed to draw a better gate to be a genuine winning chance.

Chris Waller’s mare Red Tracer has been impressive in her two starts this preparation. The five-year-old just held onto victory by a nostril in the Millie Fox Stakes when Risk Aversion found something after the race caller declared it over when Red Tracer hit the lead.

From barrier one, Corey Brown needs to make sure he isn’t stuck in a pocket when they come around the bend because the mare takes while to wind up.

Red Tracer carried 58kg in the Millie Fox where Risk Aversion carried 56.5kg. Today, Risk Aversion has just 52.5kg on her back compared to 57.5kg carried by Red Tracer.

Although the Millie Fox was run on a heavy track, that weight differential makes Risk Aversion the pick of the roughies, who could find herself into single figures if a downpour hits Rosehill.

The best of the mares is Steps In Time but unfortunately for trainer John O’Shea, she has drawn the car park. With victories over Streama and Red Tracer in her last two starts, the Danehill Dancer mare is unbeaten this season.

This will be a big step up in class for Steps In Time, who has continually struggled when she has gone up against Group 1 horses. Most of her victories have come when she has led all the way and she will dart to the front from her wide barrier.

Unfortunately for O’Shea, the fast finishers in this field are all three year olds, none of whom Steps In Time has form against.

Of the rest, Driefontein, Bennetta and Star Of Giselle are capable of running honest races to feature in the placings but they will all need a lot of luck to win today.

This is a wide open race with the favourite unlikely to start any shorter than $4.

Preview and tips provided by Alfred Chan

Coolmore Classic Tips

1. Flying Snitzel
2. Dear Demi
3. Steps In Time
4. Star Of Giselle

Justin Cinque

1. Driefontein
2. Zurella
3. Dear Demi
4. Bennetta

Cameron Rose

1. Dear Demi
2. Pear Tart
3. Flying Snitzel
4. Steps in Time

Andrew Hawkins

1. Norzita
2. Zurella
3. Dear Demi
4. Bennetta