Last but not least on the card at Flemington racecourse, in Melbourne Victoria, Australia this weekend is race 16, the Grade II Opera Gold Cup. Eight mares will face the starter over a mile and one quarter or 2000 metres in the local parlance, all chasing a share of the $250,000.00 purse.<\/p>\n
The field is incredibly even, with bookmakers putting up a 4-1 favourite in Crying Sky, a four year old daughter of Street Cry and the Saddlers Wells mare \u201cRound Well\u201d, who is coming off four wins in her last five starts, with that miss being a Group 1 fourth during the English spring. <\/p>\n
Her last start was a nose victory in a Japanese stakes race with a 103 speed racing and she is a legitimate hope for picking up her first Group victory.<\/p>\n
Breaking from the four hole is the highest ranked turf classic mare in the race at twenty, Grip Tight, an Irish bred daughter of Montjeu. Munnin240\u2019s charge is stepping back from the Group 1 Friendly Wager where she sat just off the lead before being swamped late to finish a close up fourth. This followed from a punishing Grade 2 win in the Rich and Famous Handicap at Hollywood Park in June. There isn\u2019t much early speed in this race, so watch for leading rider D Evans to push her to the lead e and the question will be whether she has enough the ability to grip tight down the long straight.<\/p>\n
While Round Well and Grip Tight appear to be the leading two chances, as the odds would indicate there are plenty of other mares in with a good chance. <\/p>\n
Running through them in numerical order:<\/p>\n
Giant\u2019s Causeway filly, Xtra Cosmopolitan has the pole for Saturday\u2019s race and while she has only broken a 100 speed on three occasions, two of them were here in Melbourne over Saturday\u2019s 2000 metre trip. Firstly, a stunning Group 3 win in the Wake up Stakes in a 111 speed followed up by a close second in the Group 1 Down Under Oaks. Her last up start win in a Malaysian allowance race hints at a return to similar form, watch for her to be closing late at her perhaps generous 8-1 odds.<\/p>\n
The Roan coloured Theatrical mare \u201cActress Approves\u201d breaks from the three gate and is another bringing the makings of a picket fence form line into the race, after wins in an allowance and a pair of stakes races in Vermont and Italy respectively. She will definitely stand out on the Track and many punters will be following her with their hard earned. Won\u2019t be the worst of chances.<\/p>\n
Breaking from gate five, breaks The Bank, another four year old mare and another last start Stakes winner, this daughter of Dansili bring successful in the Black Gold Stakes at Queensland, four weeks ago running a 107 speed. She will most probably be somewhere around midfield in the running and Fairhaven6, who competes as part of the Lenny empire hopes that his girl can produce something akin to the Queensland effort , which should be enough to take her close.<\/p>\n
The Group One Yolkshire Oaks last time out put an end to \u201cHawkes Bay\u2019s\u201d winning streak at five races. This daughter of Montjeu is a three time Group One winner and goes out at 9-2. Texasace00\u2019s pride and joy is stepping back down to the ten furlongs this week and this may be the answer after her shock failure at York. On her best form she\u2019d street this lot as she has in over 50% of her starts, the question for me is will she bring the A game?<\/p>\n
Circle of Hope for the 7 gate, is a Strong Hope mare from a Seeking The Gold mare, who found the step up to Group One level in her most recent starts. Dropping back to Group 2 will suit her, but the step up to 10 furlongs may not. She seems best at around a mile, where her sole graded success was recorded. Not for me in this lot, but at 5-1 she has friends in the bookmaking ring.<\/p>\n
Rounding the field out from the outside gate is the only local bred in the field the Nadeem mare \u201cDoroble\u201d. Her sole graded success came next door in New South Wales in the Group Three Arrow field Stakes as a late three year old in November last year. Would need to produce a career best effort to be in the mix here, especially as she\u2019ll look to get back early with a lot of the favoured runners. She\u2019s also at 5-1 but won\u2019t be getting any of my cash, but still she is there with a runner chance.<\/p>\n
In summary, a field with plenty of chances in which probably anything could win without causing a major shock. The bookmakers will probably be the only winners in the ring from this. For me though for what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ll go:<\/p>\n
Grip Tight
Crying Sky
And the Wake Up winner in Xtra Cosmopolitan for the show. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Who will be singing the loudest on Saturday?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":361,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8416","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\/361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}