There are several possible scenarios at Eagle Farm on Saturday in which certain runners can reimpose their presence in the record books.
Zaaki is obviously the prime contender for that as the Annabel Neasham trained star looks to land a second successive Doomben Cup victory. The Robert Heathcote trained Emerald Kingdom, similarly, will be looking for back-to-back wins in the BRC Sprint.
Then there is Kukeracha, who is also looking for a double of his own, albeit it on a different track to those same race goals of Zaaki and Emerald Kingdom.
A year ago, almost to the day, Kukeracha won the Group 1 Queensland Derby by the narrowest of margins from his stable-mate Senor Toba as the Chris Waller team brought home the big race quinella … and now Kukeracha is back looking to complete a Queensland Derby / Doomben Cup double.
It would be fair comment to say that Kukeracha enjoys racing in Queensland where he has achieved three of his four victories.
Last season the son of Night Of Thunder raced four times in the Sunshine State. He won a race during the summer season and then returned for three engagements in the winter where he finished third in the Queensland Guineas (just 1.25 lengths behind Private Eye), second in the Rough Habit (a length behind Criminal Defence) before keeping that natural result progression going with the win in the Queensland Derby.
A notable point there is that Waller stepped Kukeracha up in distance each race … from 1600m to 2000m to 2400m … as he worked his way into Derby winning form.
No surprise then that Waller is following a similar formula this time around.
Kukeracha has again raced twice leading into his Group 1 assignment.
The four-year-old won the Listed Tails stakes in his first run back in Queensland and then chased Zaaki home for a highly creditable third place (finishing just 1.30 lengths back) in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes earlier this month.
Follow the trend … that was 1640m up to 1800m … and now the final step up to the 2100m of the Group 1 Doomben Cup.
The Waller wins, when they come don’t just happen by accident. The program of every individual horse is carefully planned to give a horse its best possible chance in its race … and Waller has certainly, once again, done that with Kukeracha.
Of course, Waller would have done that with all of his runners (he saddles forty percent of the Doomben Cup line-up), but only Kukeracha is looking for that special piece of history.
While Zaaki reigns supreme at the top of the betting boards at $1.36, Polly Grey is the shortest priced Waller runner for the Doomben Cup at $8.50. Kukeracha is at $14. Great House is at $31 and Yonkers is at $34.
