Australia: Ladies Day Cup at Hawkesbury wide open

The $109,000 Ladies Day Cup at Hawkesbury Racecourse in Australia on Wednesday is the ideal one-mile race for Looks Like Elvis and Military Zone to rebound from recent losing streaks.

The same goes for Archedemus, Mantastic and Quintessa.

:: Get free past performances, analysis, and picks for Australian racing

Those horses have raced in group-level races or more lucrative handicaps at prestigious tracks in recent months without winning. Hawkesbury, about an hour west of Sydney, often draws competitive fields for its leading races, and Ladies Day Cup, with 13 runners, certainly fits the description.

Mantastic was fourth of 13 at 60-1 in the $363,500 Rosehill Cup at 1 1/4 miles on Oct. 31. Looks Like Elvis was fifth in the Group 1 Epsom Cup at Royal Randwick Racecourse on Oct. 3.

Archedemus was third in the Weekend Hussler Stakes at Caulfield on Oct. 10. Military Zone was eighth in the Group 3 Sydney Stakes at Randwick on Oct. 17, while the mare Quintessa was seventh in the Group 3 Craven Plate at Randwick on the same day.

Military Zone, trained by the father and son team of Peter and Paul Snowden, won three stakes, including two Group 3 races, in 2018 and 2019. A 5-year-old Australian-bred, Military Zone is winless in his last eight races, and was third by about a neck in the Group 3 Eagle Farm Mile in June.

The mile distance of the Ladies Day Cup will be a better fit than the six-furlong Sydney Stakes for Military Zone, who tends to run from off the pace.

Quintessa, who tends to run closer to the pace, has won once in 12 career starts, taking a maiden race at a mile at Gosforth in August. Prior to that, she was third in the Group 1 ATC Oaks at 1 1/2 miles at Randwick in April.

The eight-time winner Looks Like Elvis has won at distances ranging from six furlongs to about 1 1/.8 miles. Twice a winner at a mile, Looks Like Elvis is winless in 12 starts in the last 14 months, including five second- and third-place finishers.

Looks Like Elvis followed his fifth in the Epsom Cup with a seventh in the Spring Mile Handicap at Randwick on Oct. 17. In September, Looks Like Elvis was third by 1 1/2 lengths in the Group 2 Shannon Stakes at 7 1/2 furlongs at Rosehill Gardens. A repeat of that race could be good enough to win the Ladies Day Cup.

First post time at Hawkesbury is 9:25 p.m., Eastern, or 6:25 p.m., Pacific, on Tuesday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.