Australia: Miss Fox returns after five-month layoff

The 4-year-old filly Miss Fox won three consecutive starts from late January to mid-March in Australia, rising rapidly through the country’s handicap ratings system.

There is a penalty for such success.

When Miss Fox returns to racing after a five-month layoff in a handicap at five furlongs at Scone Racecourse on Tuesday, she is booked to carry 132 pounds. The booking of the promising apprentice jockey Dylan Gibbons knocks the weight assignment to a more appealing 123 pounds.

Gibbons, 18, is certainly a rider in good form of late. He began riding in late July and had his first winner at Coffs Harbour on Aug. 8, and his first two-win day on Friday.

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Gibbons, 18, is the son of veteran jockey Andrew Gibbons, who finished the 2019-20 season in late July as the leading rider in the state of New South Wales with 124 wins.

Dylan Gibbons will ride Miss Fox for trainer Adam Duggan, the first time Gibbons has ridden for the Gosford-based trainer. Duggan does not have many starters, but has won with 12 of 50 runners since last September.

Miss Fox accounts for three of those wins. She was second in her debut last August, and won a five-furlong maiden race at Taree on Jan. 31. Miss Fox won a five-furlong handicap, also at Taree, on Feb. 23, and a handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs at Gosford on March 14. In each race, Miss Fox was favored and won from a stalking position.

Miss Fox was a strong favorite in early betting for Tuesday’s race as of Sunday. The race drew a field of 13, including Thermosa, a 6-year-old gelding who returned from a layoff of nearly five months to win a handicap at 4 1/2 furlongs at tiny Nyngan Racecourse on July 4.

Thermosa has won 5 of 17 starts. The win at Nyngan ended an eight-race losing streak since last August.

Tuesday’s handicap is the last of eight races on a program that begins at 10:50 p.m. Eastern, or 7:50 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.