The Hobartville Stakes meeting will be held at Rosehill this Saturday. The course proper was rated a Heavy 9 on Thursday and with mainly fine weather in Sydney leading up to the weekend, Rosehill will border on Soft/Heavy condition on raceday.
The very promising Cellsabeel is all the rage for the Silver Slipper (Sydney Race 3, 1100m). The Hinchinbrook filly showed us her potential on debut when she came from second last to finish 4th to Dame Giselle in the Golden Gift, sprinting a very fast last 600m in the process. After a spell, she came back winning two trials before annihilating the field by 6 lengths over this track & trip on a Heavy 8 surface. Cellsabeel will have no problem handling the wet condition on Saturday and regular jockey Tommy Berry will once again be on board. From barrier 2, Berry will settle somewhere mid-field and Cellsabeel will accelerate quickly in the last furlong.
Last start winner Fun Fact can make it two wins on the trot by taking out the Parramatta Cup (Sydney Race 6, 1900m). This Bjorn Baker-trained gelding has been rather consistent with 3 top three finish in the last 5 starts. His last start victory was quite brilliant sitting on the pace and simply ran away from the field to win by 3 lengths. The 4YO also has a good record on Soft tracks with 2 wins & 2 thirds from 5 attempts. Fun Fact will drop to the limit weight of only 53kg on Saturday. Jay Ford will go forward and sit outside likely leader Mushaireb. He’s rock hard fit and together with his light weight, Fun Fact could prove hard to catch.
Being 3rd up in the Hobartville Stakes, Microphone will certainly have a fitness edge on that very good colt Castelvecchio (Sydney Race 7, 1400m). The Godolphin-owned colt Microphone is unbeaten over 1400m winning both starts at the trip. After finishing as runner-up in the Golden Slipper last autumn, Microphone won the Group 1 Sires Produce Stakes over this trip and he took out the Group 2 (1400m) Autumn Stakes last start. The 3YO has won once with a 2nd placing from 2 attempts in the wet and champion hoop Hugh Bowman will take over the rein in the Hobartville. Even fitter on Saturday and Microphone is going to run out a strong seven furlong.
By Owens Wong, Editor
