Australia: Sacramento seeks repeat in Canberra Cup

Sacramento won the Canberra Cup at Canberra Racecourse in Australia last year to end a five-race losing streak.

The 6-year-old Sacramento was the 3-1 favorite in early betting Saturday to win the $131,500 Canberra Cup on Sunday evening and once again needs a victory to end a nine-race losing streak dating to last year’s race.

The Canberra Cup is run at 1 1/4 miles and is part of an eight-race program at Canberra that begins at 10:26 p.m. Eastern, or 7:26 p.m. Pacific. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.

Trained by Adrian Bott and Gai Waterhouse, Sacramento was fourth by slightly more than two lengths in the Randwick City Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on March 4 in his most recent start.

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A winner of 7 of 32 starts, Sacramento tends to run from off the pace, a rarity for the Bott-Waterhouse operation which has plenty of front-runners in the massive stable.

Sacramento is part of a field of 11 in the Canberra Cup. None of the runners won their last starts.

Arapaho, a winner of 6 of 29 starts, was the 4-1 second choice on Saturday, largely on the company the 6-year-old French-bred gelding has kept in recent starts. Arapaho was seventh of 12 behind Anamoe, Australia’s top older horse, in the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes at a mile at Randwick on Feb. 25.

Arapaho was 90-1 in the Chipping Norton and was beaten 4 1/2 lengths.

The Bott-Waterhouse team also starts Yaletown, a 5-year-old gelding who finished second by a nose in a seven-furlong allowance race at Canberra in 2021 in his only previous start at the track.

Yaletown, who has not raced since September, was a Group 2 winner at 1 1/4 miles in 2021 in his second-to-last start before he was given a 17-month layoff that ended in September.

Yaletown was a 20-1 chance as of Saturday.

Most of the runners in the Canberra Cup are starting on the surface for the first time.

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