It’s South Australian racing’s time to shine this weekend, with their Group 1 racing interspersed with the start of Queensland’s winter carnival.
Ladies day is headlined by the Robert Sangster Stakes for the sprinting fillies and mares, while the Australasian Oaks gives the staying fillies their chance to claim a Group 1.
Do we really need any of the Group 1 races held in Adelaide? There’s a fair case to make against, and the same is true of many in Brisbane too. Nevertheless, here they are, and there’s still money to be made.
Hugh Bowman has clicked with Miracles of Life as a four year old mare, and in the 2014-15 season, she’s been mixing it with Sweet Idea and beating home the likes of Shamal Wind, which makes her very hard to beat in this grade.
Vain Queen has all the talent in the world on her day, and has been beaten less than a couple of lengths with excuses at Group 1 level in her two runs this campaign. There’s isn’t quite the depth to this race as the Oakleigh Plate and William Reid, so she’s sure to be in the finish.
We know the likes of Gregers and Politeness will always be competitive in this sort of race. The former will be up on the speed doing her thing, while the latter will be saved for one run. Both need things to go right.
Avoid Lightning had a mixed Sydney campaign and has been up for a while, but is a hardy mare. No-one is going to be surprised if Platelet wins at an attractive price as she always does, and we’ll all shake our head at why we didn’t take the $11.
The two fillies engaged, Sabatini and Wawail, have been in good form all campaign. Sabatini can at least turn the tables on Politeness from last start with a better barrier and a cosier run, while Wawail has her work cut out dropping back from 1600 metres in less than a month.
A horse at odds is always a chance to pop up in this sort of race, and Scarlet Billows appeals as the knockout chance at huge odds if she replicates her Hareeba Stakes run behind Under the Louvre, which ties her favourably into the Oakleigh Plate form.
I Love It is going to run in a different state for the fourth time in a row, and it seems to suit her, with wins in Victoria and Tasmania followed by a second to Griante in Sydney in the lead up to this. She’s a value hope too.
Selections: 1.Vain Queen 2.Miracles of Life 3.Scarlett Billows 4.Politeness
Fontein Ruby seems to have been up longer than Stonehenge, but is relishing her racing as her campaign stretches on, and while she flopped in the Australian Guineas, she’s been far too strong at a mile in her last two runs and is ready for 2000 metres now.
Fenway hasn’t been seen since her surprise Vinery Stud Stakes in at Rosehill a month ago, but we know the First Seal form sits at the very top end of fillies level around this distance range.
Delicacy has built up a picket fence over in Perth beating the same sort of horses, and gets tested east of the WA border for the first time. Her sort of form usually measures up.
Wine Tales was knocking on the door during her Sydney campaign without being able to break through. She strikes a winnable race here, but it’s hard not to think she’ll find one or two better again.
Ungrateful Ellen is the fresh horse on the scene for Robert Smerdon, and her colours are certainly getting the job done on the footy field, so why not. Cathy’s Mark is another low profile horse trained by a horseman who knows how to get one to peak at a distance.
Sea Spray has been crying out for 2000 metres, and there are worse $21 shots around this weekend. By the same token, Kansas Sunflower and Fitocracy also have place claims at odds.
Selections: 1.Fenway 2.Fontein Ruby 3.Cathy’s Mark 4.Wine Tales
Casper
Guest
I'd suggest across Australia we've manipulated the whole Group racing concept to suit breeders so they can milk the buying public and particularly overseas market. I agree that the Qld & SA carnivals are a bit heavy with Group 1's nowadays but that's a symptom of the breeding industry push. Why not cull them right across the country instead of just aiming at what is considered the inferior racing states. You can't convince me that, as an example, the Toorak Handicap in recent years attracts the quality it used to years ago, it's been won by Solzhenitsyn twice recently and although we'd like to own one like that, he's not a group 1 horse. The upcoming Doomben Cup is a typical example of Group 1 madness, it was always a great handicap where the lower weighted horses got a chance to win decent prize money, but other than Might & Power and before him Rough Habit, it's never had a quality WFA field. it should be a G2 and return to a handicap. Generally run on a wet track, it attracts the leftovers from the Sydney Easter carnival or unknown kiwi's. If you go back through results of the Qld Derby since 1983, only Strawberry Road, Rough Habit and possibly Handy Proverb who ever amounted to much later on. The Qld Oaks has lived off Ethereal for a while now and recent winners haven't set the world on fire since, but that's also the case with many of the staying races for 3YO's as they seem to flatten a lot of them for future racing. Races like the Coolmore have been created as Group 1's to suit the stallion market, after all it's sponsored by a stud. This practice of grading the race based on the quality of the fields over a period means they just pump $1M into a race, attract a decent fieldand then they can sell the winner for $10M. In the old days, that was what the Stradbroke was for.
Scuba
Guest
If you demoted some of the rubbish Group 1s that are run in Sydney and Melbourne (to name a few off the top of my head, the Canterbury Stakes, the Memsie and the Storm Queen), more horses from NSW and Victoria would travel interstate in search of Group 1 glory. That's the answer - not robbing the other states of the few Group 1s they have. If you were going to downgrade Group 1s in SA and QLD it should be the Sangster and the Tatts Tiara, but while breeders hold the power they do Group 1 races for mares are not going to be on the hit list.
andrew
Guest
im not suggesting first seal is not a good filly. but some seem to think she is some sort of stand out or star. and she is the benchmark for all form barometers and anything with first seal must be a good thing aginst the inferior other form lines. i think we have a very even (and actually pretty ordinary) bunch of 3yo fillies this season. different winner each week in the spring with amicus, lumosty, thunder lady, set square and first seal all scoring. then in spring sabatini won a few in melb. first seal won once, fenway, candelara. different winner every week. and today a perth horse has come and rolled fenway (who beat first seal). for the colts though, i think there is a clear pecking order.
Cameron Rose
Expert
All fair comments Andrew, but at the end of the day, First Seal is a Group 1 filly. Obviously has lost some of her gloss and unworthy of a boom, but her G1 record is still 5: 1-3-0, with two of those starts against mares. The form around her is entitled to stand up in Adelaide. And we could do with losing some Group 1 races in Melbourne and Sydney too.
Cameron Rose
Expert
I don't know if we ever get one up when we agree Tristo, time to cancel my Vain Queen bet!!
Tristan Rayner
Editor
Thanks Cam. I don't mind the quality in the Robert Sangster but the Oaks isn't quite up to Group 1 you'd have to say. Vain Queen looks like a special.
andrew
Guest
well actually peeeko, fenway was $5 and 2nd fave for the AJC oaks before she got scratched. fontien ruby would have started no longer than about $12, but smerdon held her prep back cos he thinks 2000m is her max trip, so she has been targeted at this. she is one of the best fillies this seaons. lets not wet our pants too much about the 'first seal' formline. one boom win in feb and she is the next star. form is ordinary from her flight stks win in spring. if she wins 3yo filly of the season, its a joke. the sprint is a cracking race and i have no gripes with this edition of it being set as a group 1 race. its all a bit tiring and predictable the 'lets back the SA, WA, QLD' group 1's. tomorow i like coundnt agree more up in alice springs. at caulfield ew value with danestroem and count encosta early in the day. then supido and master of arts and red bomber later in the day.
peeeko
Roar Guru
plenty will disagree but yes, these are not group one races. i cant believe there used to be 2 group one fillies oaks in SA. most of these horses would have been 50 and 100-1 in the sydney oaks and the TJ smith