It is a wide-open affair in Ramornie Handicap 2017 betting at the Grafton Cup Carnival’s opening day on Wednesday with the super consistent Badajoz narrow favourite to take out the winter spring.
In-form Sydney sprinter Badajoz is narrow favourite in 2017 Ramornie Handicap betting to win at Grafton on Wednesday. Photo: Steve Hart.
Running as Grafton Race 7 at 4:05pm (AEST) tomorrow afternoon, the $160,000 Listed Grafton District Services Club Ramornie Handicap (1200m) features a capacity line-up.
First emergency Taillevent and the Allan Denham-trained Mount Nebo are two early scratchings from the field, paving the way for second spare Red Bowers ($51) to gain a run.
Of the starting 16 there are five gallopers battling for favouritism in the Ramornie Handicap odds at Ladbrokes.com.au.
Winning the early battle for the punters’ love is Badajoz ($4) despite the James Cummings-trained four-year-old drawing out in double-digits.
The Commands gelding has been in stellar form leading up to his first black-type test since a Group 3 second at Morphettville as a juvenile back in May of 2015.
His past nine starts going back to June last year have produced top three performances and Badajoz was most recently seen winning a Benchmark 90 at the Sunshine Coast over 1000m on July 1 by one and a half lengths.
He carted 56kg to victory that day and drops to the 54kg minimum this week with Corey Brown coming aboard for the run.
Badajoz is currently into barrier 15 so has plenty of work to do and will also need to improve stepping up to 1200m for the seventh time, a distance he has three minor placings but no wins over to date.
Close second-elect in the latest Ramornie Handicap markets at $4.60 is the Peter & Paul Snowden-trained three-year-old Calanda who was a big winner barrier-wise drawing gate three.
Jockey Jim Byrne comes off stablemate Flippant, the mare to be ridden by Larry Cassidy instead, and takes the saddle aboard this improving Snitzel gelding.
Calanda enjoyed a light weight win (53kg) over 1100m at Rosehill at the start of the month and is now up in distance and grade on the weekend.
His latest stakes assignment produced a sixth at Doomben on June 10 in the Listed Daybreak Lover Stakes (1200m), a run that was better than it reads on paper as he was beaten only a length by the winner All Over Bosanova.
Third favourite for Wednesday at $6 is the aforementioned fellow Team Snowden runner Flippant drawn one on the inside of her young stablemate in gate two.
Flippant, a four-year-old daughter of Hinchinbrook, races second-up in the Ramornie Handicap field following a credible fifth when fresh at Doomben on June 24 behind Burning Passion ion the Group 3 W.J. Healy Stakes (1200m).
She should take improvement from that run and gets in on the same 55.5kg weight chasing her first win since a black-type success down the Flemington straight as a $17 roughie by over two lengths on Melbourne Cup Day last year.
Rounding out the single-figure Ramornie Handicap hopes this winter are the heaviest-weighted runners The Monstar ($7.50) and Boss Lane ($8.50) carting 59.5kg and 57.5kg respectively.
Brett Cavanough’s recent June Stakes winner in the mud at Rosehill by nearly six lengths, The Monstar was last seen finishing runner-up to Gold Symphony at Rosehill on July 1 in the Listed Civic Stakes (1350m).
The Ron Quinton-trained Boss Lane is a fellow six-year-old in nice form coming off a runaway three and a half-length Randwick win in the Winter Dash (1200m) late last month.
See below for the latest Ramornie Handicap 2017 odds, betting open now at Ladbrokes.com.au.
