It’s now officially the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival even if it has been ongoing for the past few months. On Saturday the first of the big rich Group One races, the Caulfield Cup is to be run.
It’s an intriguing race this year, with any number of interesting runners, including Weekend Hussler who will be out to redeem his failure in the Turnbull a couple of weeks ago. He’s currently at fairly good odds, his last race performance creating doubts as to his ability to win over a mile and a half (2400 metres). I certainly hope he can win and put the mockers on the knockers. He is top weight, so he has his work cut out for him.
The contenders also include Maldivian who caused a sensation last year by rearing in his barrier stall and cutting his head on some television equipment that was fixed to his gate, which resulted in him being summarily scratched from the race. The race was won by Master O’Reilly who is also part of the action this year; though in my opinion he won by default last year. I’m interested to see how the British horse Mad Rush goes and also Guillotine who has drawn a wide gate, but is a lightweight chance.
Several New Zealand stayers are in the mix – Nom De Jeu, Red Ruler and Boundless. It is not wise to doubt their ability these days.
As someone on the Racing & Sports forum said, the Caulfield Cup is a dart board -it’s anyone’s guess which horse will win.
Last week’s Yalumba Stakes yielded a surprise result. Douro Valley, who hardly ever wins anything, snatched the victory from Pompeii Ruler with Guillotine coming third. Douro Valley is also running in the Caulfield Cup – he came second last year, so has a long chance.
The Caulfield Guineas was won by a horse with the peculiar name Whobegotyou, a super star in the making, so the pundits aver. My favoured runner, Time Thief came second. Whobegotyou won very convincingly by several lengths and Time Thief just couldn’t catch him.
The fillies Thousand Guineas, run on Wednesday was won by Gallica with Cat’s Whisker coming second.
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