Home hopes lead Mackay Cup challenge on familiar turf

The Mackay based trainer Lachie Manzelmann would appear to enjoy a very real home ground advantage when he sends out two runners in the $150,000 Mackay Cup on Saturday.

Manzelmann saddled three winners (including his main Mackay Cup hope Journalism and his Mackay Newmarket winner Red Hot Lizzie) at the last Mackay meeting on July 17. If you drill down further you will find that, in the last two meetings where he has runners at his home base, Manzelmann has won six of the twelve races his team contested, a set of results which included another treble on July 2.

Journalism and The Driller are the runners that Manzelmann has earmarked for the Mackay Cup.

Since the start of May, Journalism has raced seven times for three wins, two runner-up finishes, a third place and a fourth place … so his consistency, even as a rising eight-year-old is not in question. He might be deep into his prep, but he will arrive at the track on Saturday rock-hard fit with every chance of showing the benefit of a measured build-up to the Cup over 2000m after raising the distance test in each of his last three starts … from 1560m to 1600m to the win over 1800m.

Adam Sewell, who partnered Journalism in his last start victory, retains the ride.

Manzelmann’s other runner is the nine-year-old, ninety-eight race veteran, The Driller.

The Driller has finished unplaced in all of his last seven starts so would need a turnaround of form to have a major say in the outcome on Saturday.

Joshua Manzelmann is another Manzelmann family player in the Mackay Cup.

He will saddle the Shamus Award gelding Odegaard, a five-year-old who finished second to Journalism, just 0.46 length back, when they last clashed.

Odegaard won two out of the four races immediately prior to that runner-up finish. The two defeats he suffered, other than the loss to Journalism, came in the final of the $200,000 Battle Of The Bush at Eagle Farm (in which he finished sixth as the $3.50 race favourite) and in the Rockhampton Newmarket (in which he finished fourth, only 0.39 lengths behind Red Hot Lizzie).

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That’s eye-catching form in itself and Odegaard will now meet Journalism 1kg better off at the weights, suggesting that wherever Journalism finishes, Odegaard should not be far away.

Whether it will be a Manzelmann Mackay Cup celebration remains to be seen.

There will be no doubt though that they will defend their home turf with everything they have got.

And trainer Jennifer Hatfield, the only other Mackay based trainer with runners in the Cup, will have exactly the same mindset.

Hatfield saddles Acrophobic and The Penske File. The former is seldom far off the action but is struggling to find winning form, while The Penske File is clearly worth more consideration of the two.

The Penske File is the runner who finished third behind Journalism and Odegaard in his last start … and he finished second by a whisker two runs back in the Winter Cup at Townsville, which significantly, was over 2000m … a distance over which both Journalism and Odegaard have yet to be tested.

Some of the visiting raiders are very well credentialled … and the best of them will take some beating … but they will have this home town challenge to contend with, and that is one which simply cannot be ignored.