This Sunday, Victoria, Australia once again hosts a top-flight race for older turf specialists, the Grade 2, $800,000 Victoria Cup. A well-established group of turf stars has assembled to try each other over 10 furlongs of Australia’s finest real estate.<\/p>\n
It’s a very interesting bunch, ranging all the way from allowance runners taking a moon shot to established vets of Grade 1 turf wins to faded former champs looking for that one last big prize. Seven of the thirteen runners own graded-stakes star badges; that high a percentage denotes quality, in my book. Let’s bust out the ol’ virtual fishwrap and have a look at this fine bunch…<\/p>\n
CRUSHER OF LOVE<\/strong> (8\/1) has won impressively in minor stakes races the last two times out and makes his graded-stakes debut here. Traner fairhaven<\/em> has brought this Galileo colt along nicely; now is the time to take that big shot at glory. Tough place to try it, but certainly not impossible.<\/p>\n RUNAGROUND TED<\/strong> (19\/1) has six career wins, but only one in stakes racing; and that was on a sloppy dirt course. The 4yo son of Matsurida Gogh has shown plenty of finishing ability for inabred<\/em> when in allowance fields, but it looks like the waters here might be a bit too deep.<\/p>\n BALLET CLASS<\/strong> (9\/1) danced to an upset victory over fellow entrant MIKEL<\/strong> in the Grade 3 National Stakes last time out and could get a prime spot just off the expected hot pace here. The 4yo Tapit colt trained by stcshag<\/em> appears to be getting super-sharp just at the right time.<\/p>\n PLEASANT KOGER<\/strong> (14\/1) tries the ol’ dirt-to-turf angle, but is most likely to be a pace victim here unless trainer dmckinna<\/em> has played a different strategy card with his 4yo Pulpit colt. Still, this is a quality runner; in many stakes races he’d be well-regarded by oddsmakers, attesting to the mightiness of this group.<\/p>\n BOUNTY LIST<\/strong> (9\/1) had a 3-race win streak broken last time in the HOF Members Equinics race, but the 4yo Daiwa Major colt representing the colors of the bernardini<\/em> stable was coming off a 2-month layoff and might be sharper today. A repeat of that dazzling performance in the Grade 2 Los Angeles Derby just might be the ticket.<\/p>\n FRANK TOOT<\/strong> (12\/1) should be another member of the hot charge toward the front early; The 4yo Tapit colt trained by anestasia<\/em> hasn’t been succesful beyond 8.25 furlongs vs. winners on turf, but that 111 speed number in his last looks awful nice anyway… Lots to prove here.<\/p>\n FLIBBERTYGIBBET<\/strong> (8\/1) just missed in the HOF Members Equinics race last month for waradmiral<\/em> (okay, full disclosure, that’s me) and earned a snappy 116 speed figure in the process. The 4yo Sea The Stars colt has finished on the podium in every graded-stakes try except one, that being a 13-furlong lung-buster, the Grade 1 Vicky Derby.<\/p>\n A DISCERNING MIND<\/strong> (10\/1) makes his 2014 debut here, and just a little post-birthday improvement could make the 4yo Dansili colt dangerous. The willyam37<\/em> trainee is consistent, only missing the tote once in his 11 career tries.<\/p>\n MIKEL<\/strong> (6\/1) makes the Victoria Cup his 9th consecutive graded-stakes start. In the eight preceding races, he has finished in-the-money in six of ’em with one win, the San Marcos Footwear Handicap. The 4yo Sea The Stars colt trained by limpid<\/em> is ranked #15 in this division and would be no surprise here.<\/p>\n ELITE DIMAGGIO<\/strong> (10\/1) is one of the reasons that a hot pace is expected in this race; the 4yo Rock Of Gibraltar colt is nearly always on the pace, even sometimes in sprints. The eliteracing<\/em> trainee has never raced beyond 9 furlongs, so he will need a career-best effort to hold on for any part here.<\/p>\n LYTHENYENO<\/strong> (7\/1) is a 5yo son of Montjeu, a veteran of quite a number of graded stakes races. Last time out, the ladofmanor<\/em> trainee finished a fairly distant 3rd against a loaded field in the Grade 1 Mr. Met Cup; that effort could have set him up for a big run here.<\/p>\n ROXY EPOXY<\/strong> (7\/1) almost certainly will fire from the gate, as he did in winning the 9-furlong Grade 3 Strange Brew Handicap with an incredible 122 speed rating last time out. The skunkbred2<\/em>-trained 4yo Tanino Gimlet colt will be very tough to catch unless that amazing last race sucked a little steam out of him.<\/p>\n DANE DE LAGO<\/strong> (11\/1) takes another shot at graded-stakes stock after four tries that garnered just one 3rd-place finish. The 5yo Encosta De Lago runner trained by grandarmee<\/em> may benefit from the scorching front-end battle if he has a top effort.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay, let’s spin the Magic Wheel-O-Winnerz that I found at an antique shop…\u00a0 Err, a garage sale…\u00a0 Er, okay… beneath the grandstand balcony at Golden Gate Fields, right next to the body of its previous owner.<\/p>\n Hmm, never did find out why the dude committed suicide on Closing Day, nor why all the pawn shops in the area closed for a day in his honor… Aaaaaaaaannnnnyyyyywwwaaaaayyyyyyyy… Here are the Magic Wheel’s surefire, um, “winnerz”…<\/p>\n Well, if you think I’m gonna pick any horse other than my FLIBBERTYGIBBET<\/strong>, you’d be wrong.\u00a0 Funny, though… The Wheel agreed with me and picked the same horse. Only took six spins, too!<\/p>\n With a name like ROXY EPOXY<\/strong>, you’ve gotta think he’s gonna stick around and get a big part of this big purse…<\/p>\n I’ll take the betting fave MIKEY<\/strong> to like 3rd.<\/p>\n Good luck at the races!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Sunday, Victoria, Australia once again hosts a top-flight race for older turf specialists, the Grade 2, $800,000 Victoria Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20049,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions\/20049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}