Metropolitan fancy Thebudgiesmugla is unbeaten in five starts over 2400 metres and he will be out to make it six when he lines up in the Drinkwise Cup at Randwick.
The six-year-old was one of the revelations of the off-season, winning three of his four starts between May and July, including the Winter Cup at Randwick and Caloundra Cup in Queensland, both over Saturday’s journey.
With the benefit of a recent fourth to Boniface over a middle distance, Thebudgiesmugla is expected to be hard to hold out at Randwick.
“He was great first-up and he’s five from five at the 2400 and gets 2400 again on Saturday,” trainer Bjorn Baker’s racing manager, Luke Hilton, said.
“It wasn’t always in our mind to run Saturday. We were going to give him a bit of time into the Newcastle Cup, but this race came up, and it looked so good for him we decided to run him.
“He is obviously a bit better with his toe in the ground, but he’s putting together some good performances on better ground as well.”
Thebudgiesmugla sits on the fourth line of early markets for the Metropolitan as an $11 chance, and is a $2.25 top pick for the Drinkwise Cup.
His biggest challenge might be in the form of stablemate So You Are.
The latter is a recent addition to the Baker stable, but there was less than a length between that horse and Thebudgiesmugla in both the Winter and Caloundra Cups, while So You Are beat his barn mate home at their last starts.
However, Hilton suspects the horse affectionately known as “Thebudgie” is open to more improvement of the two.
“So You Are had a little bit more residual fitness than TheBudgie first-up,” he said.
“He’s going to strip a bit fitter as well, but I’d say TheBudgie has got a bit more improvement to come.”
Incredibly, Baker only had his first city winner of the season when Appeared was successful at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
The top trainer had endured a luckless start to the new term with 7-1/2 seconds – two of them recorded by speedy filly Blue Door in stakes races.
