Australia: Handicap at Sandown looks like battle among three fillies
The 3-year-old fillies Bold Manner, Charm School and Sirileo Miss meet for the first time in a handicap at 6 1/2 furlongs at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday, each with an excellent chance to win for the second time in her brief career.
The fillies have taken divergent paths to reach Wednesday’s race, which is run on the Lakeside course that is the inner of two courses at Sandown. The Lakeside course has a slightly shorter stretch than the outer Hillside course.
Any of the three could be favored in a highly competitive field of 13.
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Sirileo Miss, trained by Symon Wilde, was booked to carry top weight of 135.5 pounds, but the presence of apprentice jockey Melissa Julius reduces the assignment to 129 pounds and leaves Charm School and Yosemite as the starting topweights at 133 pounds.
Julius, who has won with four of her last 50 mounts through Saturday, will ride Sirileo Miss for the first time in the filly’s first start this year. Sirileo Miss won her debut in a seven-furlong maiden race at Bendigo on Nov. 11, and was second 10 days later in the Stockade Stakes at seven furlongs for 3-year-olds bred in the Australian state of Victoria at Ballarat.
Sirileo Miss closed from off the pace to miss by a head in the Stockade Stakes.
Charm School will have her fourth start on Wednesday. She won her debut in a six-furlong maiden race on the Lakeside course last April and was ninth of 10 in the Group 3 Breeders’ Stakes for Southern Hemisphere 2-year-olds that month at Morphettville Racecourse. In her only start this year, Charm School was sixth of nine in a six-furlong handicap on the Lakeside course on March 3 against a similar field she will face on Wednesday.
Of the three principal runners, Bold Manner runs closest to the front. In her only start, she closed from third in a field of 12 to win a maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs as the 8-5 favorite at Stawell Racecourse on March 5. She may have a tactical advantage over her two rivals.
The handicap is the fifth of eight races on a program that begins at 11:30 p.m., Eastern, or 8:30 p.m., Pacific, on Tuesday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.