A minor class drop has left the 4-year-old gelding Blend as a slight favorite in a one-mile handicap at Coffs Harbour Racecourse in Australia on Sunday evening in a race with many capable contenders.
As of early Saturday, Blend was the 3-1 favorite in early betting with Gold Merchant, Ocean Flyer, Sagrado, Seething Seb and Too Much Heaven all between 9-2 and 6-1 in a field of 11.
So many leading runners makes for a tricky, but intriguing, contest.
A supporting player in group-level stakes last year, Indestructible ($18.60) was the surprise winner of Thursday’s Group 3 Craven Stakes for 3-year-old milers at Newmarket Racecourse in England in his first start for trainer Karl Burke.
The win in the $99,200 Craven Stakes is expected to lead to a start in the Group 1 English 2000 Guineas at a mile on May 6 at Newmarket for Indestructible, who is owned by Amo Racing.
Indestructible was the fourth choice in a field of seven that had a North American influence.
With 400 meters left to race Sunday at Nakayama Racecourse in the Satsuki Sho, the Group 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas, Sol Oriens was 17th of 18 runners and more than 10 paths off the fence. A quarter-mile later, he had swooped past 16 rivals and won the $3.1 million Satsuki Sho by 1 1/4 lengths while going away.
AINTREE, England - He did not start in any kind of race until he was 5, and even then his first five appearances were in point-to-point, or amateur, races in Ireland. He was pulled up in the first two of those races, and finally won his fifth start as a 6-year-old in September 2020.
Along the way, the Irish-bred gelding Corach Rambler steadily showed improvement, particularly over distances and never more so than this spring.
“Okiku hiraku” means “wide open” in Japanese, and the Group 1, $1.68 million Satsuki Sho on Sunday at Nakayama Racecourse looks okiku hiraku indeed.
Japan’s version of the 2000 Guineas is contested over 2,000 meters on Nakayama’s right-handed course, which, given a rainy weekend forecast, figures to be good to soft if not outright soft. That throws another variable into a race already lacking any sort of standout that, frankly, looks “magirawashi” – confusing.
AINTREE, England – The $1.24 million Grand National had a new favorite on Friday afternoon, a day before the famous steeplechase is run at Aintree Racecourse north of Liverpool.
Ain’t That a Shame, a 9-year-old gelding, who won a $12,100 prep race at 2 1/2 miles at Gowran Park in Ireland last month, was bet down from 14-1 earlier in the week to 8-1 with bookmakers on Friday, a slight choice over Corach Rambler and Delta Work at 9-1 in the 40-runner field.
Corach Rambler was as low as 7-1 on Thursday.