Wide-open Metric Mile offers Darwin Cup golden ticket at Fannie Bay

The Metric Mile tops the fare at Fannie Bay on Saturday as the Darwin Racing Carnival continues on its way towards its Grand Final Day featuring the Great Northern Darwin Cup on Monday, August 3.

The Metric Mile is not only a regular, well established stepping stone for runners wanting to head for the Darwin Cup, but it has the added importance of being a race where the winner will gain ballot-free exemption into the Cup.

For some, the Metric Mile thus presents a ‘last chance’ to earn a place in the Darwin Carnival showpiece and to keep their ultimate Carnival aspirations alive … and earning that slot is going to be no easy task if the open nature of the betting is anything to go by.

No less than six of the eleven-strong field are locked between $4.50 and $8 on the betting boards.

Compare the latest Darwin Cup Carnival markets with Australia’s leading Australian Betting Sites.

The Chris Nash trained Rematch, a track and distance winner in the Palmerston Cup last time out, is the runner who has edged into favouritism at $4.50.

He was second-up in that win which was his second start since relocating to Darwin. His first-up run came after a six-month layoff and was over 1300m. He showed natural progression from there to win second-up, beating the useful Ichiban in a manner which suggests there could be further improvement to come for this six-year-old son of Real Impact.

The Gary Clark trained Stormfront is second favourite at $6.

He is a run behind Rematch this preparation, this being his second-up run, but, as Rematch did, he now goes to 1600m (from the 1300m of his first-up run). Stormfront is a two-time winner over Saturday’s track and distance.

Magic Defense and Crown Waters are the runners bracketed together at $7 with online bookmakers.

The Kerry Petrick trained Magic Defense is bang in form. He won the Chief Minister’s Cup last time out … and he has only finished out of the first two places three times in eleven starts since the start of the year.

The Tommy Logan trained Crown Waters finished unplaced but only 1.60 lengths behind Magic Defense in the Chief Minister’s Cup. They met at level weights there and Crown Waters now has a massive 5kg favourable turnaround at the weights.

Wolfburn and The Girl’s Boy are both quoted at $8.