Australia: Mighty Ulysses gets slight distance test in Hollindale

In 2021, the English-bred gelding Zaaki won his first stakes in Australia in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes at Sunshine Coast Racecourse in Brisbane. When he was retired earlier this year, Zaaki had amassed 11 stakes wins, including three consecutive runnings of the Hollindale.

Zaaki was trained by Annabel Neasham who has another recent import in her stable for the Hollindale in Mighty Ulysses, a two-time stakes winner in England in 2022 and 2023 for trainers John and Thady Gosden.

For Neashem, Mighty Ulysses is already a success, winning the Brisbane Mile on April 27 in his second start in Australia. The 5-year-old gelding is part of a field of 14 in Friday’s Hollindale, which is run at 1 1/8 miles.

A winner of 5 of 12 starts in England and Australia, Mighty Ulysses runs from off the pace. He has won all five of his races at a mile, making the Hollindale distance a slight test.

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Neashem has four of the 14 entrants, including Jimi Hendrix, who was second in the Brisbane Mile, and Naval College, who won three consecutive starts in December and January in races at 1 1/4 miles and 1 1/2 miles. The Hollindale will be Naval College’s first start since late January.

Huetor, a closer who won the Group 3 JRA Plate at 1 1/4 miles at Royal Randwick Racecourse on April 20, will be favored in the Hollindale for Peter and Paul Snowden, but was not helped by drawing the outside post.

Run on a triangular-shaped right-handed track, the race starts from a chute to the left of the stands, and proceeds down the side of the course for a quarter-mile before making a gradual turn onto the backstretch.

A start in the Hollindale will be much-needed class relief for the 4-year-old gelding Kovalica, who finished 11th, ninth and fifth in three consecutive Group 1 races at 7 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles in a three-week span from March 23 to April 13, his most recent start.

The Hollindale is part of a nine-race program that begins at 10:33 p.m. Eastern or 7:33 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

At Morphettville Racecourse near Adelaide on Friday evening, Amelia’s Jewel and Oscar’s Fortune, second and third in the $3.24 million Quokka Stakes at six furlongs at Ascot Racecourse in Perth on April 20, will dominate the betting in the Group 1 Goodwood Stakes at six furlongs.

The $661,500 Goodwood drew a field of 15. Amelia’s Jewel, a 4-year-old filly who has won 9 of 15 starts, poses a threat as a closer, while the 3-year-old Southern Hemisphere gelding Oscar’s Fortune tends to stalk the pace. Oscar’s Fortune has won 5 of 9 starts.

The Quokka is the richest race in Western Australia, with a purse partially derived by owner-funded berths.

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