The Championships end at headquarters tomorrow and royalty may well be the key. Can Her Majesty’s horse Carlton House win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes named in honour of the owner.
“He goes into this race ‘hunky dory’,” trainer Gai Waterhouse told the Daily Telegraph.
“He’s a big masculine horse and I can’t have him any better.”
Punters may well agree for Cartlon House has been installed favourite for the $4million feature even though the import goes in having been gunned down by Silent Achiever in the Ranvet Stakes.
Silent Achiever franked the form when winning the BMW Stakes a fortnight later and her trainer Roger James has the mare purring in preparation for the Queen Elizabeth.
Then there is the “Waller factor” to consider. The record breaking trainer will start one time Horse of the Year contender Boban, back-to-back Doncaster Handicap winner Sacred Falls, his 10 length Australian Oaks winner of last year Royal Descent and Hawkspur.
Sacred Falls beat Royal Descent home in last Saturday’s Doncaster in which Hawkspur was fourth.
Throw in last year’s Triple Crown winner It’s A Dundeel, whose hooves don’t appear to be a problem, and a former Melbourne Cup winner in Green Moon and the Queen Elizabeth is yet another racing conundrum.
The Queen Elizabeth is the last of four straight group 1s at Randwick on Saturday and Waller dominates the first.
Fresh from an historic Doncaster “first 4” Waller has Queen Of The Turf favourites Red Tracer and Catkins.
The interesting runner here may well be the New Zealander Recite which is prepared by a former international polo player in Jon Bary who trained Jimmy Chioux.
A group 1 winner of the Levin Classic back home Barry reckons the win in the Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes earned Recite a ticket to The Championships.
“It was only a listed race but it was weight-for-age against older horses and she just donkey-licked them,” Bary told the Herald.
Bary arrived in Sydney last week and Recite was joined on the flight over by Miss Selby which runs in the Australian Oaks. Big race ace Glen Boss, who has been quiet of late, rides both Recite and Miss Selby.
“It has been a long, patient build-up to get here and this whole season has been focused [on being] in Sydney on this day,” Bary said.
“Especially with these classic races you have to believe in your systems and your horse and target them, and that’s what I have done.”
One time New Zealander Lucia Valentina, now in the care of leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees, is the Oaks favourite.
Charged to the top of markets when blowing rivals away to win the group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill a fortnight ago.
“She certainly hasn’t gone backwards and this is the race we’ve targeted all the way along,” Lees said on Friday.
Oaks winning trainer Guy Walter will start Zanbagh, whose dam Wild Iris won the classic, and Missvonn and both have been set for one assignment.
Rounding out the majors is the Sydney Cup and has there been a better line-up in recent times?
The query being top-weighted imported Voleuse De Coeurs who will be ridden by Boss although Waterhouse has the favourite The Offer.
The query runner is definitely Who Shot Thebarman. A New Zealander and not your usual grinding, week-to-week, type for this gelding has only been to the races nine times.
The five-year-old is a six time winner and goes into the staying test a last start winner of the Auckland Cup over Saturday’s distance of 3200m.
Then you’ve got Darley Stud’s three-year-old Tupac Amaru which finished second in last Saturday’s Australian Derby.
“He is an improving young horse who ran a blinder last start and he’ll relish the trip,” trainer Peter Snowden told the Daily Telegraph.
The worry being the last three-year-old to win the Sydney Cup was the Walter-trained Tie The Knot way back in 1998.
THE TIPS
QUEEN OF THE TURF: RECITE 1, Catkins 2, Gypsy Diamond 3, Red Tracer 4.
AUSTRALIAN OAKS: ZANBAGH 1, Lucia Valentina 2, Rising Romance 3, Miss Selby 4.
SYDNEY CUP: WHO SHOT THEBARMAN 1, Tupac Amaru 2, The Offer 3, Tremec 4.
QUEEN ELIZABETH: HAWKSPUR 1, Silent Achiever 2, Sacred Falls 3, Royal Descent 4.
By Craig Young
