Paul Lally:
R1 2-10-11-4
R2 1-3-7-4
R3 8-7-1-4
R4 1-5-9-2
R5 6-8-10-7
R6 10-2-12-1
R7 1-3-6-7
R8 9-6-11-2
R9 9-7-12-4
R10 7-3-2-4
Best Bet R6 N10 Ernest Feeling
Longshot R8 N9 Fortune Master
Play Race6 QQP 2-10-12
Tom Wood:
R1: 2-4-1-5
R2: 3-2-1-4
R3: 7-3-4-5
R4: 1-5-9-2
R5: 11-7-9-8
R6: 10-1-3-2
R7: 1-6-8-4
R8: 6-2-7-10
R9: 8-4-3-1
R10: 3-2-1-7
It took six races, but the Australian gelding Strad finally won a maiden race at Mornington Racecourse outside of Melbourne on Oct. 7.
The way Strad closed from off the pace to record a convincing win by 2 1/2 lengths in the five-furlong race suggests he can win consecutive races for the first time in his career in a handicap at 5 1/2 furlongs at Ballarat Racecourse on Monday.
The Ballarat program is the most prominent card in Australia on Monday, a day before the famous Melbourne Cup program at Flemington Racecourse.
Art Cadeau is unbeaten in four starts in Australia this year, including in three lucrative restricted races.
Sunday’s $150,400 Goulburn Cup at Goulburn Racecourse is an open race, and will test Art Cadeau’s ability against a different group of horses at a seven-furlong distance the gelding has shown to like.
Bizarro week in Hong Kong racing continues with a Sunday card at Happy Valley.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club turned the standard racing schedule on its head this week, with the Wednesday program, typically run at Happy Valley, held at Sha Tin. And this Sunday’s card, nearly always hosted at Sha Tin, will be run at Happy Valley.
Featured is race 2, a Class 2 handicap for horses rated 100-80 and carded for five furlongs on turf, a one-turn race at Happy Valley.
Efforia, a nose away from an undefeated record in five starts, will race against older horses for the first time in Sunday’s Grade 1 autumn running of the Tenno Sho at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan.
The $2.55 million Tenno Sho, run at 1 1/4 miles, will provide a proper test as to where Efforia fits in the overall list of Japanese runners in advance of other major stakes such as the Japan Cup on Nov. 28 and the Arima Kinen on Dec. 26.
Last year, European-based runners swept the first three positions in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in Australia.
That will not happen on Tuesday, when the race is run before a pandemic-limited crowd of 10,000 in Melbourne. The widespread European participation that has led to five winners in the last 10 years has been reduced to two prominent shippers – Twilight Payment, who won the race in 2020 for Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien, and the Kentucky-bred Spanish Mission, who is based in England with Andrew Balding.
Rich and Shameless, a 5-year-old gelding, has had an active October, already finishing seventh, second and fifth in cup races at smaller venues in Australia.
There is time for one more start in a similar race in the Moree Cup at Moree Racecourse on Friday.
The seven-furlong Moree Cup is similar to recent starts by Rich and Shameless in that the race is run as a handicap and has drawn a competitive field. Trained by Scott Singleton, Rich and Shameless was fifth by 2 1/4 lengths in the Coonabarabran Cup at a mile only on Sunday.
Everything except the post position seems favorable for Gunstock in Saturday’s Group 1 Victorian Derby at Flemington in Melbourne, Australia.
The rapidly improving Gunstock beat maidens in his second start in September and won his group stakes debut in the Group 3 Neds Classic at 1 1/4 miles at Caulfield Racecourse on Oct. 16. The $1.5 million Victorian Derby at 1 1/4 miles will be Gunstock’s fifth start.
The well-bred mare Lost Impact has an international pedigree, but a modest race record in five starts.
A 5-year-old mare, Lost Impact has won 2 of 5 starts in Australia and will be favored to win for the third time in a handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Warrnambool Racecourse on Thursday. Arguably, she should be farther along in her career.
Lost Impact was bred in Japan and is by top Japanese stallion Deep Impact. Lost Impact is out of Siren’s Song, who was a minor stakes winner in Ireland in 2011 and was seventh in the Group 1 English Oaks at Epsom Racecourse that year.