Two $500 000 QTIS Jewel races … a two-year-old and a three-year-old edition … headline the card at the Gold Coast on Saturday and the two ‘Defiant’ brothers will be looking to give trainer Stuart Kendrick a unique double on the day.
Defiant Boom and Defiant Spirit share the same breeding (Spirit Of Boom – Defiant Dame) and Defiant Boom will be the first in action in the two-year-old edition of The Jewel.
The fact that Defiant Boom is still without a win in three starts could be something of a misleading statistic.
There was certainly plenty to like about his debut run and result at Doomben when he finished second three-quarters-of-a-length behind the more experienced, short priced favourite Wolfgang, who was winning for a second time in a row there.
In his second-up run, Defiant Boom finished third in a race won by Spywire, who would go on to finish third in the $2 million Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic … and, in his last start Defiant Boom had to settle for a minor role again when finishing third, just over a length behind the very smart debut winner All Inclusive in the Two-Year-Old Jewel Prelude.
It is worth noting that the connections of All Inclusive think enough of the gelding to have set him for the Group 2 Todman in Sydney for his second start, which also takes place this Saturday.
That’s not a bad set of results for a non-winner!
No surprise then that Defiant Boom is the race’s second favourite at $5 behind the $4 main fancy Mishani Lily who is a two-time winner from four starts.
Defiant Boom will be ridden by Michael Rodd and is set to jump from barrier thirteen.
Defiant Spirit runs in the three-year-old edition of The Jewel.
Defiant Spirit won on debut and has progressed to be a four-time winner from nine starts.
He was a last start winner … in the Three-Year-Old Jewel Prelude … and has a Gold Coast track and distance win behind his name.
That record has earned the Kendrick trained runner a great deal of respect in the betting where he currently tops the boards as the $4.20 favourite with aussie betting apps.
Highbar ($6), Trifling ($6.50) and Party For Two ($8.50) are the runners labelled to pose the biggest threats to Defiant Spirit, but perhaps his biggest challenge might not come in the form of an opponent, but rather a barrier draw, with Defiant Spirit basically drawing the carpark in barrier twenty.
Weighed against that doubt though is the fact that in the Jewel Prelude also jumped from a wide draw (barrier thirteen) and still won in scintillating fashion, in spite of carrying 59kg and giving a weight advantage of between 1.5kg and 6.5kg to all of his rivals.
The Three-year-Old Jewel is at set weights.
Robbie Dolan, who will be in the saddle again on Saturday, took Defiant Spirit back at the jump in the Prelude … gave the leaders a nine length start mid-race and then handed all of his opponents a thrashing in the home straight, courtesy of a superb, sustained display of acceleration.
Clearly Defiant Spirit is a promising prospect.
Whether he will be racing to try to complete that unique ‘Defiant’ double will depend on the result of the Two-year-Old Jewel one race earlier, but clearly the possibility is there for it to be a very exciting forty-five minutes for the Stuart Kendrick stable and the connections of the two ‘Defiant’ runners.
