The 3-year-old gelding Wolf Moon is most comfortable when allowed to rumble along on the lead on Australian racetracks.
The style has led to three wins at distances ranging from six furlongs to a mile and a third in his stakes debut in the Daybreak Lover Stakes at seven furlongs at Eagle Farm Racecourse on April 21.
On Monday, Wolf Moon will start in the longest race of his career in a handicap at about 1 1/16 miles at Ipswich Racecourse, near Brisbane.
Paul Lally:
R1: 9-1-8-10
R2: 6-5-1-11
R3: 2-4-12-5
R4: 4-9-2-12
R5: 3-1-6-9
R6: 11-6-4-2
R7: 6-10-2-11
R8: 4-10-11-1
R9: 3-2-6-8
R10: 1-11-9-4
R11: 1-3-9-2
Best Bet: R10 N1 Trillion Win
Longshot: R6 N11 Best for You
Play: Race10 QQP 1-9-11
Mark McNamara:
R1 – 1.9.5.6
R2 – 6.1.11.5
R3 – 5.2.4.13
R4 – 9.4.3.2
R5 – 3.1.6.7
R6 – 10.2.7.11
R7 – 10.6.2.11
R8 – 4.1.7.3
Excelleration and Irish Butterfly are the first two choices in a seven-furlong handicap at Bendigo Racecourse in Australia on Sunday following widely divergent results in recent starts at Sandown Racecourse in Melbourne.
Irish Butterfly closed from last of nine to win a handicap at 7 1/2 furlongs at Sandown on Feb. 10 for his third win in 11 career starts.
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Since the start of his career, Deep Bond has displayed an affinity for distance races in Japan. He won a maiden race at 1 1/4 miles at Kyoto Racecourse in November 2019 as a 2-year-old in his second start, after all.
Last year, Deep Bond chased Japanese champion 3-year-old Contrail without success through the country’s Triple Crown. That rival is conveniently not part of Sunday’s spring running of the Grade 1 Tenno Sho, a race also known as the Emperor’s Cup.
There were no derby wins earlier in the career of Russian Emperor, the Irish-bred colt who starts in Sunday’s Group 3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.
It was not because of a lack of trying by his trainers at the time.
Russian Emperor won the Hampton Court Stakes for 3-year-olds at Royal Ascot in England last June and was seventh of 16 in the Group 1 English Derby at Epsom last July, a race delayed a month because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hours before the Kentucky Derby, the European Classic season gets under way at Newmarket, where 15 3-year-olds are set to run one mile down a straight course in the English 2000 Guineas.
Aidan O’Brien has trained the Guineas winner four of the last six years and, in total, 10 times during his career, but while he’s represented Saturday by three runners, two among the favorites, his son Joseph O’Brien has a very live chance to win his first 2000 Guineas.
Paul Lally:
R1 9-6-10-3
R2 1-10-6-2
R3 6-9-4-7
R4 5-4-2-3
R5 7-5-1-2
R6 6-4-1-2
R7 6-9-3-1
R8 11-5-3-9
R9 8-4-2-10
Best Bet R9 N8 Super Axiom
Longshot R5 N7 Fa Fa
Plays R5 QQP 1-5-7
Mark McNamara:
R1 9.11.2.10
R2 10.2.6.1
R3 7.1.9.4
R4 2.11.5.7
R5 5.4.2.1
R6 6.4.8.1
R7 7.9.3.6
R8 5.4.11.10
R9 4.8.2.12
Best Bet R6 N6 Triple Triple
