Victoria<\/SPAN><\/I><\/B>, the south eastern state of the Australian mainland, the sporting capital of the country and the home of the world famous Melbourne Cup this weekend sees the running of the Coalminer Cup Grade I. <\/SPAN><\/STRONG>A time honoured event over the classic distance of a mile and a half for all horses three years old and up on turf. Just five runners have assembled for this top line race but of those, no less than four of them are ranked among the top fifty turf long horses on the planet. Here\u2019s how they look on paper. 1 – TEX GOLD(IRE) \u2013 texasace00<\/I> \u2013 3\/1<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> (SADLER’S WELLS x ALYDAR x BOLD RULER)<\/SPAN><\/I> J Cox ( 543 – 113 – 80 – 104 – 21% ) A four year old colt and a Grade 1 winner over this distance who has the turf long rank of 22. In just twenty career starts he has won on nine occasions and already won over three million dollars in prize money. He is an absolute specialist over this distance and all of his best career victories have been over this trip, one of them being three starts back when he saluted at Grade 1 level in the Saint Cloud Grand Prix where he ran an SP#110. He also has experienced jockey J Cox <\/I><\/B>on board which will assist him here as he will attempt to lead all of the way. Trainer texasace00<\/I><\/B> said \u201c He is a mile and a half specialist and a grade one winner, this race suits him perfectly, we expect a good result\u201d. There\u2019s every chance we may see one too. 2 – CREEK MAMBO(KY) \u2013 stcselur<\/I> \u2013 8\/5<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> (KINGMAMBO x STRODES CREEK x HERBAGER) D Evans ( 689 – 181 – 136 – 122 – 26% ) This four year old son of Kingmambo has won seven of fifteen career starts and has produced some great runs of late. Just three starts back he won a grade two race over this distance and then bettered it two starts back with a Grade 1 win, those two runs produced staggering SP#\u2019s of 116 and 112. He couldn\u2019t reproduce those efforts last time out but will be looking to bounce back here. He is ranked 12th<\/SUP> among the turf long runners and has a real penchant for this distance and loves to dominate from in front. Trainer stcselur<\/I><\/B> said \u201c He has been training perfectly, we couldn\u2019t ask any more of him and he is ready to win again, he had his share of excuses last time out\u201d He is right in this. 3 – CALIFORNIA LOOP(JPN) \u2013 equus<\/I> \u2013 8\/5<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> (MOON BALLAD (IRE) x OUR EMBLEM x TROY(GB)) B Johnson ( 92 – 11 – 17 – 6 – 12% ) This five year old horse is ranked twenty third on the turf stayers ladder and is another who loves to dominate his races from the front. He has won eleven of his twenty five career outings and is nearing the million dollar mark in prize money earned. He found his best last start with an impressive all the way win at Grade III level over eleven furlongs and produced an SP# 111. The two starts prior to that yielded two fourth placings when he was run down after leading. He also led all the way to win a Grade II over a mile and a half four starts back so he is running well. The only concern here is who can win the speed battle up front and whether or not it will take a bit of stamina out of the likely leaders. Trainer equus<\/I><\/B> said \u201cIf he can get to the front relatively easy without burning up too much gas, we have a big chance\u201d Time will tell if he can do it. 4 – BLANC DE NOIRS(KY) \u2013 widest<\/I> \u2013 7\/2<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> (RAHY x ZABEEL(NZ) x SHERGAR(GB)) D Dowell ( 524 – 80 – 92 – 66 – 15% ) The veteran of the field at six years old who boasts a turf long ranking of fiftieth and who is coming off an impressive win over this distance. He has won four of his last eight starts including a Grade II event over thirteen furlongs and a Stakes race over eleven furlongs. The bulk of his races have seen him settle midfield and run home strongly which may benefit him here given the number of potential leaders.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Trainer widest<\/I><\/B> said \u201c We have a good jockey on board, I\u2019ve told him to just sum up the speed and give him a soft run in transit then explode at the business end of proceedings, hopefully it will all go to plan\u201d He definitely offers punters some value at 7\/2. 5 – FIVE STAR PROSPECT(KY) \u2013 erdiya<\/I> \u2013 20\/1<\/SPAN><\/STRONG> (RAHY x MR. PROSPECTOR x APALACHEE) J Kohlmorgen ( 330 – 35 – 35 – 31 – 11% ) The rank outsider of the field who bounced back to form last time out with a fast finishing win over two miles in allowance company, prior to that he had struggled to make an impression in recent times bar a couple of thirds where he was soundly beaten. His SP#\u2019s have only averaged around the low 90\u2019s and he will need to improve upon that to go well here. He may benefit from the early speed as his normal running style is to come from near the tail. Trainer erdiya said \u201cWe have thrown him in at the deep end here but we think he can improve, his trackwork has been great and we think he may relish the shorter trip\u201d He definitely has a big task ahead to gain a Grade 1 win here. In what looks a nice race on paper with tactics sure to play a big part, especially given three of the five runners like to lead. I\u2019ve selected 2-1-3-4-5<\/I><\/B> Good Luck and Good Punting BUTCHA SMALL FIELD STILL PROVIDES MULTIPLE WINNING CHANCES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"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-8483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483","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\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}