Scotland’s scratching lifts hopes of rivals

GEM Of Scotland’s scratching from today’s Mode Plate (1200m) at Doomben has sparked some confidence in rival camps that wasn’t there when the Rex Lipp-trained filly was in the field.

Michael Costa (Sukwhinder and Devine Factor) and Matt Dunn (Karaja) are two trainers whose chances of a stakes success have improved as a result.

Lipp scrapped Gem Of Scotland’s summer carnival plans and realigned his ambitions to the Group 1 Coolmore Classic in Sydney next autumn after she suffered bruising through the week when kicking out in her stable.

It caused a major market reshuffle with Ladbrokes promoting Dunn’s Karaja to the equal favourite at $5.50 with Tony Gollan’s Sugar Boom.

“Can she win first up? That’s a very good question,” Dunn said of Karaja.

“She’s got lots of improvement in her, I’ve left a fair bit in the tank.

“There’s heaps of speed in the race and (the speed has) drawn out a bit, so I think she gets a lovely run, maybe sixth, one off the fence.

“If they go quick, she can win for sure.

“She ran quick time in her trial – I think they ran quicker than the 1000m race on the day and she was going half pace.”

Sukwhinder is now a $7 chance, while Devine Factor is at $20.

“It was a significant scratching,” Costa said of Gem Of Scotland’s withdrawal.

“Happy is not the right word because you feel for (connections of Gem Of Scotland), but she’s obviously going on to bigger and better things and it’s a nice scratching for the competition.

“We will focus on letting our two travel where they are comfortable and leave it to the pilots. We went into Sukwhinder’s first up run with one trial and we were underdone against the older horses. She almost got the job done.”