Sydney Mile Lookin’ Good!
The rich ($2 mil!) Sydney Mile will be one of Australia’s co-feature races, and it has drawn a strong group of nine, many of which can currently be called Eclipse contenders, especially whichever one of these manages to get his picture taken after Saturday’s 14th race.
Looks like a really good one:
MAMBO WILDCAT, winner of an incredible 9 graded races in his fabulous career, will start on the rail at 6/1. It seemed just a few months ago that the career of this son of Forest Wildcat, the 2yo-turf Eclipse champ of 2006, was on its enivitable downhill slide toward retirement. However, “Mambo” had other ideas. After a 3-month layoff following a small-stakes disappointment last September, he has come all the way back, including an 18/1 stunner in the G1 Sand Castle Fee Duty last time out. While the Aussie jockey colony seems to think that was a fluke (jockeymax was only able to acquire the services of a guy in a 4% slump so far this year), it’s a very strong possibility we’ll see “Mambo” right in the thick of things at the wire.
TE LO EMPUJO, at 7/1, will load next. This son of lightly-used sire Irish sire Doyen has been competitive in his only 3 graded tries, though he has only hit the board once. In this ultra-tough field, a lifetime-best performance will be needed to score; but the zampateste trainee should keep the pace honest.
The lightly-raced 4yo CIRCLE OF DOOM is the up-and-comer of this group. He didn’t even see a racetrack until August of his 3yo year, but it only took a few races for weller1‘s spectacularly-bred son of Sadler’s Wells out of a million-dollar-winning mare to begin making noise. After his lone dirt try, he peeled off three straight powerful allowance wins. His two stakes tries since have been strong, and this one is certainly eligible to improve enough today to be a serious threat at 9/1.
Conversely, CHINCHILLA seems to have been going in just the opposite direction. He finished off an impressive 5-race win streak with a strong win in the G2 The Emerites and was looking for all the world like a genuine superstar in the making. Unfortunately, his next two Graded tries were less-than-impressive. After a couple extra weeks’ time off, bjbandit‘s son of Montjeu closed to 2nd against an unexpectedly strong field in a minor stakes, but then he followed that with another disappointing run in the G3 The Derby Lord Challenge. He’ll need his best to live up to the low 5/1 odds today.
From the 5-hole comes 4/1 favorite and 2009 BB Mile champ THE CALLING. So far, 2010 hasn’t been kind to this fairhaven5 trainee. The 6yo son of Green Desert might have begun to reach that downhill side of his career, but he remains dangerous at this point.
MOUNT SAMSON is still looking for that elusive first Graded-stakes win, but has been close to the winners’ circle numerous times. The effort given by the bjbandit-trained son of Danehill Dancer was especially encouraging, a fast-closing 3rd in the G3 Horse Chestnut Stakes. Only a little more improvement, and this 5/1 shot just might earn that elusive Graded win.
MACKINAW PEACH, the 9/2 second choice trained by wrecks2, grabbed his first Graded win with style last out in the G3 International Trophy. The expected pace scenario may fall right into the strengths of this son of quick son of Vindication. Should this guy get to lead in a relatively leisurely fashion early on, he’ll be tough to catch.
PASAME LA BOTELLA bombed pretty badly in his last start, the G1 Sand Castle Free Duty. Trainer victoria: “Last time he bombed like that, he came back and won three straight. I think he’ll be fine today.” True, but they were allowances and a minor stakes. The 8/1 son of Librettist will need to prove a lot of naysayers wrong in order to score here.
URBAN DYNAMO, trained by otistaylor, goes at 7/1 in this tightly-packed odds set. This son of Dynaformer is a tough one to figure out; on occasion, he fires huge in the stretch, but more often, he just closes up to midpack or so. Of course, he faces top ones almost every time out. Which DYNAMO will we see today?
Put-up-or-shut-up time:
MACKINAW PEACH – Appears to have pace edge in this spot
MAMBO WILDCAT – Oldster appears to have found the Fountain Of Youth
CIRCLE OF DOOM – Lightly-raced runner with superstar potential
Good luck at the races!