Looking for a Cox Plate edge? Keen to increase the betting tank? Well what about form expert and noted commentator Tony Brassel?
In this space last year the Sky Racing and Sun Herald wordsmith advised punters there was a “good thing”. Not content tipping a winner you could have stood the Kiwi Ocean Park out and boxed up Brassel’s other three tips to collect the First 4.
“If you saw the way Murray Baker’s natty four-year-old It’s A Dundeel landed last season’s ATC Derby at Randwick, the 2013 Cox Plate is as good as over,” Brassel told the Home Of Racing.
“There was James McDonald swinging onto the High Chaparral colt, six lengths ahead of a real good horse in Philippi.
“At 4-1 on he was supposed to win like that, anyway it was the way he did it.
“And that came a few weeks after his Rosehill Guineas triumph by seven lengths, with Chris Waller’s subsequent Doncaster Handicap winner Sacred Falls running second.”
Not even a foot abcess, which kept It’s A Dundeel out of the Caulfield Stakes, a traditional Cox Plate lead-up, worries Brassel who believes the four-year-old is better on the fresh side.
“Now a winner of nine from 14 starts, It’s A Dundeel operates best around 2000m,” Brassel said.
“He eyeballed Atlantic Jewel out of the Underwood Stakes a month back, then hit a setback.”
That’s where Baker comes in. An international Baker is out to right a wrong. Two year’s ago Baker’s Victoria Derby winner Lion Tamer broke down in the Cox Plate and had to be put down.
“A one-time cricketer for New Zealand, Baker has forged a tremendous reputation on both sides of the Tasman,” Brassel said.
“He’ll have the best horse he has trained coming out swinging.”
The shock retirement of Atlantic Jewel during the week due to a tendon injury vaulted It’s A Dundeel to the top of Cox Plate betting.
On the second line is one time Melbourne Cup favourite Puissance De Lune and the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente both of which figure in Brassel’s top 4.
“A team of foreign stayers are tipped to chase our Australasian selection,” Brassel said.
The third is last start The Metropolitan winner Seville which is out to provide levithian owner and racing scholar Lloyd Williams with an overdue Cox Plate.
Williams also has last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon, who disappointed in the Cox Plate 12 months ago, and the import Masked Marvel in this year’s Australasian Championship.
Last year Brassel found a spot in his Cox Plate quartet for the three-year-olds All Too Hard, which finished second, and Pierro, which finished fourth.
This time round Brassel left out the Caulfield Guineas winner Long John, preferring the seasoned campaigners Puissance De Lune, Foriente and Seville to fill the slots behind It’s A Dundeel.
“All three are gearing up for the Cox Plate – Melbourne Cup double and, given a rain-affected surface, they come right into play at the Valley,” Brassel said.
“Fiorente is the pick of that bunch for mine. Despite a wide draw, Gai Waterhouse’s long-striding entire seems better placed with plenty of room to move, but he’s bound to be spotting some start down the side of the course.
“That will be the case with most and It’s A Dundeel proved he wasn’t one dimensional when putting it to Atlantic Jewel in the Underwood Stakes.
“He’ll do me.”
Brassel’s First 4: It’s A Dundeel 1, Fiorente 2, Seville 3, Puissance De Lune 4.
By Craig Young
(Editor’s Note: Tony Brassel had correctly tipped Home Of Racing’s readers the ‘First 4’ acrossed the line in the Cox Plate last year, in which NSW TAB paid a very healthy dividend of $3,832.50. Please review his article for the 2012 Cox Plate: http://homeofracing.com.au/craig-young-writes/tony-brassels-expert-opinion-on-the-cox-plate-runners/)
