Australia: Loving Cilla may like distance of Tuesday handicap

Recent success over longer distances may help Loving Cilla win for the fourth time in her career in a handicap at 1 1/8 miles at Hawkesbury Racecourse in Australia on Tuesday.

A 5-year-old New Zealand-bred mare, Loving Cilla won a handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Wagga Wagga Racecourse on Jan. 26, the longest start of her 11-race career and her first victory in six races.

Loving Cilla closed from seventh in a field of eight to win by more than 1 1/2 lengths as the 8-5 favorite.

At Hawkesbury, Loving Cilla is part of a full field of 16 in the sixth race on a seven-race program that begins at 9:50 p.m. Eastern, or 6:50 p.m. Pacific on Monday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

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

Loving Cilla is trained by Joseph Ible and will be ridden for the first time by Brodie Loy. Through Saturday, Loy had won with nine of his past 50 mounts dating to Jan. 13.

Loy is likely to have Loving Cilla at the back of the field, and will have a popular pacesetter to follow in Gulf of Saros, the likely favorite.

Trained by Adrian Bott and Gai Waterhouse, Gulf of Saros was sixth in his debut in January 2021 in a productive race, and did not start again until Jan. 23 of this year when he led throughout a one-mile maiden race at Wyong Racecourse.

Chad Schofield will ride Gulf of Saros for the first time. Schofield is already having a successful February. On Saturday, he rode 6-1 Xtravagant Star to a win in the $1.4 million Millennium Stakes for Southern Hemisphere 2-year-olds at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

Gulf of Saros was the 3-1 favorite as of Sunday.

The 3-year-old Prefect Match will have his second start against winners at Hawkesbury. Prefect Match needed four races to beat maidens, doing so at Wyong in a one-mile race on Jan. 8, and returned to finish second in a handicap at a mile at the same venue on Jan. 23.

Prefect Match is capable of running near the front, and could be well positioned behind the pace in early stretch.