3 minute read
The late summer/autumn carnival in Melbourne starts to get rolling on the back of Australia Day and the Australia Stakes sees real carnival players stepping out.
The favourite is the unbeaten Marabi who is five from five and now faces her toughest test with half-a-dozen Group winners set to line up against her.
She has been quick to date, each and every one of her five runs screaming 'Group horse', but there are a couple here that rate just as highly and make deep odds-on feel a little sketchy.
First and foremost is Sinawann, a Group Three winner in his native Ireland but placed in four other Group races and rated 117. He has already proven his wellbeing in Australia; running to 116 winning the Heffernan at Caulfield in November and leaving a big impression in the process.
Will 1200m at the Valley be his ideal spot? Probably not - he will be aimed up at the Orr over 1400m back at Caulfield no doubt - but his talent has to be respected and the same can be said of our each-way selection Wild Planet fresh off 231 days.
There's a good chance he will need this run, having been out just twice in 2021, and he is known as a better 1400m horse than back here in a fast 1200m, but his second to (an admittedly not quite at top) Eduardo at Doomben when fresh over 1200m last preparation leaps off the page a bit here. That's a threatening piece of form and prices up around $15.00 are too tempting to let pass by despite the obvious knock.
Our best comes in the fourth where Dundirtcheap runs for the powerful Maher/Eustace/John Allen combination.
He was no match for a good 1-2 at Caulfield first up but it was a perfect blowout for him off a long break and gives him a lovely platform out to 2000m for a yard that are brilliant in any spot but remarkably so beyond a mile.
That is first up rating is as good as any of the recent form on offer in the race, and seems sure to be in the rearview mirror on Saturday, leaves him looking a genuine and good favourite and one that we are happy to play.
THE MELBOURNE MAIL
Bet Of The Day: Race 4 #5 Dundirtcheap @ $3.30
Each Way Play: Race 7 #2 Wild Planet @ $15.00
