It has been six years since a three-year-old has won the Oakleigh Plate but bookmakers expect the age group’s drought to break.
A trio of three-year-olds have made the final field for Saturday’s Group One sprint at Caulfield and two of them sit at the top of Oakleigh Plate markets.
The Lindsay Park combination of David Hayes and Tom Dabernig have the $5 favourite Keen Array who will jump from barrier four.
The gelding has been trialling impressively at Flemington ahead of his return and jockey Stephen Baster is wasting hard to ride him at 50kg.
It is the first time since Baster’s return from Singapore in 2013 that the jockey has ridden so light.
Fellow three-year-old Heatherly is regarded as Keen Array’s biggest danger at $5.50 with the filly chasing her fourth win in succession.
After victories at Moonee Valley and Flemington, Heatherly streeted a quality field of sprinters when successful in the Rubiton Stakes at Caulfield on February 13.
The victory provided Katelyn Mallyon with her biggest success and she again rides the filly on Saturday.
Bounding from the Peter and Paul Snowden stable is the only other runner under double figures for the 1100m dash as a $6 chance.
Damien Oliver’s luck at the barrier draw again deserted him with Lord Of The Sky, returning from a tendon injury, drawing out in gate 19.
He was rated a $21 chance on Wednesday.
Oliver will also have to navigate a wide path aboard Flying Artie who has drawn barrier 17 in the Blue Diamond Stakes.
