The Godolphin-raced Viridine is the headline young sprinter leading the Arrowfield 3YO Sprint 2018 field and odds for the lucrative Group 2 sprint at Royal Randwick this Saturday in Sydney.
Viridine is favourite to win Saturday’s Arrowfield 3YO Sprint 2018 at Randwick on Day 2 of ‘The Championships’. Photo: Steve Hart.
Due to run as Randwick Race 5 at 1:50pm (AEST) as part of a bumper 10-race ‘The Championships’ Day 2 card, this season’s Group 2 $600,000 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (1200m) field attracted just 10 three-year-olds.
Sitting top of the latest Arrowfield 3YO Sprint odds at Ladbrokes.com.au paying $3.60 for the win despite a wide gate eight draw the James Cummings-trained Poet’s Voice colt Viridine.
Winner of the Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes (1200m) by two lengths at this track and distance in the spring, the Group 1 performed bay is back against his own age after a lead-up third in the Group 1 The Galaxy (1100m).
That Rosehill run on Slipper Day saw him cross just one and a half-lengths off the winner In Her Time who franked the form with a third to Trapeze Artist (1st) and Redzel (2nd) in last weekend’s Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m).
Viridine was well-weighted in The Galaxy with just 51kg but goes up to 56.5kg at set weights in the Arrowfield 3YO Sprint on the weekend with Winx jockey Hugh Bowman coming on for the ride.
Cummings and the Godolphin stable have also accepted for the consistent Isaurian, the untapped Exceed And Excel colt at $8 to win his Group race debut.
The lightly-raced three-year-old has had three starts for two wins and a last start second to I Am Excited in the Listed Darby Munro Stakes (1200m).
Occupying the second line of Arrowfield 3YO Sprint betting this Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival at $4.80 is the Darby Munro Stakes winner I Am Excited chasing a fourth win from as many runs this time in.
The David Pfieffer-trained Snitzel filly I Am Excited has won all three starts in Sydney since late February including two in black-type company and looks a big hope again from a nice barrier four draw with Kerrin McEvoy riding this weekend.
A total of five fillies take on the boys in the Arrowfield 3YO Sprint field this year including last season’s Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign at a $14 double-figure quote.
Drawn gate two the Manhattan Rain three-year-old is a multiple Group 1 winner including having defeated the older sprints last September at The Valley in the Group 1 Moir Stakes (1000m).
She won first-up at Warwick Farm this autumn before unplaced runs in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m) and Group 1 William Reid Stakes (1200m) in Melbourne.
She Will Reign is back to her own age this weekend and drops notably in grade for her first Randwick run since the 11th to Redzel only four and a half-lengths beaten in last year’s The Everest (1200m).
Shorter in the markets firming in from $11 to $9 are Written Tycoon filly Booker having her maiden Sydney run and the back-in-form Houtzen.
Booker won the Group 3 Kevin Hayes Stakes (1200m) first-up at Caulfield before finishing only a quarter-length fourth in the Oakleigh Plate.
She was last seen running down the Flemington straight to cross under three lengths back seventh to Redkirk Warrior on Super Saturday in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) and has won a subsequent Rosehill trial on April 6.
Houtzen meanwhile is on the quick back-up after the Toby Edmonds-trained filly won the Group 3 PJ Bell Stakes (1200m) impressively last Saturday.
See below for the full Arrowfield 3YO Sprint 2018 field, barriers and odds open now at Ladbrokes.com.au.
