The cards on Saturday at both Moonee Valley and Rosehill were pretty ordinary, but the good news is it’s the last average day of racing we’ll see for almost three months.
Spring is a wonderful time of year for racing fans, with both Melbourne and Sydney competing with each other for the best horses in the best races. One way or the other, the next 12 weeks will revolve around four main races – the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and the Everest.
Outside the big four, you’ve also got the highlight three-year-old races, particularly the Golden Rose, Caulfield Guineas and Coolmore Stud Stakes, along with the VRC Derby and VRC Oaks for the traditionalists.
Let’s get out the crystal ball, and see how we go. It’s impossible to pick the internationals this far out, given plans can easily change for those that are supposedly confirmed, so we’ll look at horses currently in training here.
MELBOURNE CUP
Francesco Guardi has to be the pick of the local hopes. He would have been a huge chance of winning last year, if Chris Waller and team had wanted to go that way rather than pulling up stumps after his four length Moonee Valley Cup win over Lunar Flare. There can be no doubt that every breath the horse has taken since then, has been with the 2023 Melbourne Cup in mind.
He resumed with an excellent pipe-opener in the Winx Stakes last week, and looks bang on target for his ultimate goal.
COX PLATE
There’s no doubt Australia’s middle distance WFA ranks have taken a hit with the retirement of Anamoe, and it may end up being Zaaki, Mr Brightside and Alligator Blood leading the way again.
Zaaki is now nine, Mr Brightside is a super miler but yet to prove himself a 2000m horse, and Alligator Blood is largely in the same boat.
Perth star Amelia’s Jewel will be the one, if connections choose the Cox Plate ahead of the Golden Eagle, but will they?
Sharp N Smart could be the four-year-old to step up to the plate. Graeme Rogerson took Savabeel to Cox Plate glory, so knows what it takes, and in Sharp N Smart he has a horse that already has two Group 1 wins at 2000m as a three-year-old. While he did win the NZ Derby at 2400m, he couldn’t quite stay enough in the VRC Derby and ATC Derby in Aus, so the Caulfield Cup might be beyond him.
CAULFIELD CUP
After running down the track as a fancied chance in last year’s Melbourne Cup, Without A Fight stamped himself as a horse to beat in the Caulfield Cup this year, thanks to a strong Brisbane carnival for Anthony & Sam Freedman.
His first-up win in the Lord Mayor’s Cup was excellent, albeit against a moderate lot as far as top class horses go, but the follow-up performance in the Q22 did have some depth to it. Behind him in that win was Nonconformist, himself a Caulfield Cup placegetter; Duais, winner of an Australian Cup and Tancred Stakes; Numerian, who won the Q22 the year before and was only beaten a length in the Caulfield Cup last year; and Heutor, who has two Doomben Cup’s to his name.
There is more than enough there to suggest he is the horse to beat in this year’s Caulfield Cup, at this early stage.
THE EVEREST
What a race The Everest is already shaping up to be, with Giga Kick, I Wish I Win and Think About It the three new sprinting stars of the Australian turf. It’s amazing how quickly the landscape can change.
This time last year, Giga Kick had only had three starts, winning a Sale maiden, an open 2yo handicap at Flemington, and the Vain Stakes at Caulfield. I Wish I Win had yet to be seen in Australia, having only won two races in nine New Zealand starts. Think About It had only had two starts, winning a Kembla Grange maiden and a Class 1 at Wyong.
It’s incredible to think that since then, those three sprinters have between them won an Everest, Golden Eagle, All Aged Stakes, TJ Smith, Doomben 10,000, Kingsford-Smith Cup and a Stradbroke Handicap, to establish themselves as the three firm favourites for the 2023 Everest.
Giga Kick has to be the number one seed, given all he achieved as a three-year-old and now gets the chance to come back as a bigger, stronger four-year-old. But the finishing burst of I Wish I Win is the best we have seen since Chautauqua.
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