Behemoth, Savatiano top Memsie

In the span of a hour on Aug. 15, Behemoth and Savatiano won group stakes in Australia in their first starts since losing Group 1 races in May.

Behemoth won the Group 3 Spring Stakes at six furlongs at Morphettville Racecourse outside of Adelaide, while Savatiano won the Group 2 Lawrence Stakes at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne.

Those wins have led to Saturday’s Group 1 Memsie Stakes at Caulfield, where Behemoth and Savatiano lead the betting in what could result in a first Group 1 win for one of them.

Behemoth, a 5-year-old Southern Hemisphere gelding trained by David Jolly, was fourth in the Group 1 Goodwood Stakes at six furlongs at Morphettville on May 16. A winner of 5 of 15 starts, Behemoth runs from off the pace.

Savatiano, a 6-year-old mare trained by James Cummings, tends to run as a stalker. She was sixth in the Group 1 Sangster Stakes on May 2 at Morphettville, and second by 1 1/4 lengths in the Group 1 Canterbury Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs at Royal Randwick in March.

In the Lawrence, Savatiano won by a head as the 4-1 favorite, closing from fourth in the final half-mile under jockey Mark Zahra, who has the mount Saturday.

The $541,500 Memsie Stakes drew a field of 15 and is the ninth race on a 10-race program that begins at 9:45 p.m. Eastern, or 6:45 p.m. Pacific, on Friday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

Many runners in the Memsie are returning from layoffs through the Australian winter or have had one recent start.

Arcadia Queen, a four-time group stakes winner, was fifth in the Lawrence, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in her first start since November.

The field includes the last two winners of the $3.26 million All-Star Mile at Randwick – Mystic Journey, who won the 2019 running, and Regal Power, who won this year’s race in March. Mystic Journey and Regal Power were eighth and ninth behind Savatiano in the Lawrence.

Despite the losses, both have run well in their second races after layoffs in the past.

The final five races on the Caulfield program are stakes. In the 10th race, the Group 3 Cockram Stakes at six furlongs, the 4-year-old mare Rubiaski will be favored to win her seventh consecutive race in her first start since April.