Opinion
I’m in a good mood this week.
There is no public holiday in Melbourne this week so form guides are on the news stands in good time, and while a poor Saturday’s work saw me drop from second to fourth in the Group 1 communications spring tipping comp, Princess Jenni’s long-odds win in the Bendigo Cup has got me preening like a rooster instead of a feather duster again.
Derby Day
Today sees one of Australia’s great race meetings in Derby Day at Flemington, although Sydney’s undisguised efforts to sabotage the Melbourne carnival have again meant that the quality of some races is not what it might have been in past years.
As a student of the turf, I am one of the minority that cares about this.
Of course, in a normal non-COVID year, the vast majority of the hordes swarming through the Flemington gates with alcohol, love and the punt on their mind in that order, couldn’t care less as to the standard of horses running, or in many cases whether the horses are there at all.
VRC Derby
The Derby was first run in 1855, around the time that the Demons won their last flag, and of course six years before the Melbourne Cup.
While over the years many champions have won the race, from time to time the strain of competing in a long distance race relatively early in the three-year-old season, has seen winners that have effectively sunk without trace beyond the race.
The last winner of the race to go on and win again at Group 1 level was the great Tarzino in 2015. His sire Tavistock has four representatives this year in Johnny Get Angry, Young Werther, Wertheimer and Wisaka. Savabeel is the only other sire represented in the race (Albarado) to have previously sired a winner.
Three jockeys riding tomorrow are previous winners of the race – John Allen (Let’s Karaka Deel), Hugh Bowman (Wertheimer) and Damian Oliver (Young Werther), who has been successful six times. Trent Busuttin (Albarado and Wertheimer), Mick Price (Redwood Shadow) and Mike Moroney (Tour of Duty and Wisaka) have previously trained winners of the classic.
Incredibly all 14 runners in the race today are Victorian trained, something probably not seen since the days when Sydney horses had to either walk or come by ship to Melbourne. This is just a most unusual anomaly and one thing that Peter V’landys can’t be blamed for as three-year-old stayers are one of the few racing categories that Sydney has not introduced a new shiny bauble race for in their recent spend-athon.
On paper this looks to be a fairly average race with little natural pace, so much will depend on how relatively inexperienced horses settle in the run. On that basis in an even looking field I’m finding it hard to get excited about any of these.
Cherry Tortoni’s win last week at Moonee Valley was comfortably the best Derby trial any of these have put in but I have concerns that his peak efforts have been on wet tracks, he has drawn the outside gate, and while he races in the style of a stayer his breeding doesn’t point to 2500 metres as being his best trip.
The favourite Young Werther is very promising but still learning. Let’s Karaka Deel is likely to get a nice run on the pace and Albarado and Hit The Shot look tough and competitive. The best roughie could be Wisaka ($71) – this horse is bred to run for ever, is in the right stable and is showing steady improvement as the trips lengthen.
Coolmore Stakes
Glen Boss has declared that Farnan can win this by lengths and recently he has been tipping better than me. If he’s recovered from his controversial first-up run in Sydney, he’s the one to beat. Ranting ($19) only beat a tiny field last start, but his opponents were quality and he had far and away the toughest run. Don’t underestimate this horse.
Golden Eagle
As of Friday it looks like Rosehill may be a swamp on race day – it serves them right. Surely there are a hell of a lot of other days they could choose to run this race.
The track could be nicely ploughed up by the time they get to the eighth so who knows what the prevailing pattern will be. I’m thinking the value might be Riodini ($21). This horse is not proven on the very heavy yet, but most progeny of his sire are proving adept on it. This horse ran a great third in the Epsom, is well drawn and should get a nice run near the pace. Funstar, Icebath and Colette are all gems on the wet and Sierra Sue is still untapped.
Horses to follow from last week
I don’t have much confidence in the integrity of the wet track form from Moonee Valley last week. I mean, where did that performance from Miami Bound come from, for example. Arcadia Queen was unquestionably out of luck in the Cox Plate and if she gets there and gets a dry track she should be very hard to beat in the race formerly known as the McKinnon next Saturday.
Out of Randwick it was confirmed that Peltzer and Icebath are swimmers. Icebath gets his chance to build on that tomorrow in the much harder Golden Eagle of course.
One that has gone into my black book is Through The Cracks, who ran a terrific race first up. He always improves as he gets further into his prep and could pick up a decent race this time round.
Wandabaa remains in my black book after running another bottler in the Nivison. This horse handles all track conditions and will win again shortly.
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