The reigning Australian Horse Of The Year, Pride Of Jenni, comes to town in Brisbane on Saturday to square off with, amongst others, the Queensland Horse Of The Year Antino in the $1 million Group 1 Doomben Cup.
Antino is the current ruling favourite with Pride Of Jenni on the second line of betting and it is the Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) who will be out of pocket should either of these two runners win as their CEO has announced the club with shout the bar at the track if either of the two main fancies salute on the day.
A dead-heat would make that an interesting call. Would that double the BRC’s shout?
A Group 1 dead-heat might seem unlikely, but it certainly is not an easy task to separate these two runners on form. Just give it a try.
You can tick the ‘home ground’ advantage box for Antino. The Tony Gollan trained son of Redwood has raced ten times in Brisbane for seven wins, a third place and two unplaced finishes.
As opposed to that, the Ciaron Maher trained Pride Of Jenni will race in Brisbane for the first time after arriving in the city on Tuesday.
If barrier draws help win races, on paper, you can score one for Pride Of Jenni, who has drawn pole position in barrier number one. With her pattern of racing, a flying start from the inside draw could prove invaluable. A miss-step at the start though could prove disruptive to her preferred game-plan.
Antino, for his part, has drawn wide in barrier eleven (ten after the scratching of Floating). That’s not necessarily a train-smash for a runner who likes to settle into his races. His last start success in the Group 2 Hollindale came when jumping from barrier number ten … and that came on a heavy bog track over 1800m, which augers well for Saturday’s 2000m Doomben Cup trip … bearing in mind that Antino has yet to race beyond 1800m.
That race ticked the heavy going box for Antino and he also has three wins from five starts on soft going, conditions that are likely to be in play on Saturday.
Pride Of Jenni does have a win over 2000m to her credit … and what a spectacular, highly memorable, tearaway win that was Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. She has also won on heavy going and has finished in the top three places in six out of ten starts on soft going.
Both horses are last start winners … the only last start winners in the race. Antino has had two weeks off since saluting at the Gold Coast while Pride Of Jenni will go into the Doomben Cup with three weeks between runs.
Also, importantly, there will be plenty of knowledge and awareness of their respective mounts strengths and weaknesses feeding into the mix from the saddle with Blake Shinn talking the reins on Antino for the sixth time in his last eight starts and Craig Newitt getting the leg-up on Pride Of Jenni for the fourth successive race.
Not that easy to separate them, is it?
The betting has these two runners clear of the rest and, if all goes to script, it could well be Pride Of Jenni leading the charge to the line over the final 200m with Antino flashing late … and that is the scenario that has been focused on here, but, to be fair, to call this a two horse race is disrespectful to the other ten runners involved.
This includes, amongst others, the likes of Bois D’argent (who is defending his Doomben Cup crown after last year’s scintillating win), Bois D’argent’s stable companion Fawkner Park, who finished second to Antino in the Hollindale … and you can never comfortably overlook the Chris Waller stable representatives, particularly in a staying race action.
The champion trainer has four horses, a third of the field, involved here and all will be ridden by big race jockeys … Lindermann (Nash Rawiller), Militarize (Tommy Berry), Kovalica (James McDonald) and Osipenko (Kerin McEvoy).
It is all there for the taking and whether a favourite salutes or whether there is an upset … this year’s edition of the Doomben Cup looks to be a cracker!
