Meeting worthy of a cup
THE race meeting in Launceston on Friday is one of the best at the venue this season with five feature races on the 10-event card.
Included in the features are the three lost from the abandoned Hobart meeting last week and they are the $30,000 Alexandra Plate for two-year-olds, the 3YO $100,000 Tasmanian Guineas and the $30,000 Winzenberg Trophy (1100m).
The $100,000 weight-forage Kevin Sharkie Tasmanian Stakes (1600m) and the Brighton Cup (2100m) ensure the meeting reads more like a major cup-day program.
The Tasmanian Stakes sees the return to racing of triple cups star Eastender who rewrote the record books two seasons back when he won the Devonport, Launceston, and Hobart cups to become the first since Brallos (1976) to achieve the feat.
Eastender was embroiled in a major stewards’ inquiry on the eve of the 2019 Adelaide
Cup that resulted in his trainer Barry Campbell being disqualified for two years.
The gelding ended up with the Chis Waller stable in Sydney where he performed admirably until he suffered a bleeding attack in the Canberra Cup last year that led to a mandatory three-month break from racing. Back in the care of Leanne Gaffney, who had a day out in Devonport on Wednesday training four winners including the Devonport Cup with stable star Newhart, Eastender should be running on at the business end of the race.
“Eastender probably can’t win but there had to be starting point for him leading to the major cups and this race was as good as any,” Gaffney said.
Mandela Effect will start favourite in the Tasmanian Stakes and rightfully so given his record at weight-for-age conditions in Tasmania that includes winning this race last year. The Scott Bruntontrained gelding had his colours lowered with his second in the Newmarket Handicap and a last-start third in the weight-for-age Conquering over 1400m.
But stepping up to 1600m will suit the gelded son of
Turffontein and his opening price of $2.50 appeared generous given the lack of genuine weight-for-age depth in the race.
Toorak Affair won the Conquering and looms as the main danger with four-yearold mare Mystical Pursuit the next best after her second to Toorak Affair in the Conquering.
The 3YO Tasmania Guineas is not overly strong with the Brunton-trained First Accused installed favourite at $3 ahead of Warrior Prince ($3.90) and Freelancer ($5) with Vivilici ($8) and Algernon ($8.50) best of the rest.
The $30,000 Alexandra Plate for two-year-olds looks a match in two with last-start winner Miss Charlie Brown from the Adam Trinder stable likely to start favourite ahead of Stuart Gandy’s Geegee Lucky Jess.
The Winzenberg boasts a field of eight with Gee Gee Lanett, Liffeybeau, Street Tough and Balearic likely to battle it out for favouritism.
The Brighton Cup is normally run in Hobart and offers the winner ballot-free entry to the Hobart Cup, but loses nothing by being run on the Launceston circuit.