The two early favourites for Saturday’s Doncaster Mile 2015 at Randwick Racecourse, Real Impact and Hallowed Crown, have suffered a blow drawing wide with barriers 21 and 23 respectively in the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival classic.
A capacity field of 20 starters plus four emergencies line-up in the 150th edition of the $3 million Group 1 The Star Doncaster Mile (1600m) this weekend for the feature race on Day 1 of The Championships.
The duo leading the pre-field Doncaster Mile odds at Ladbrokes.com.au however could be forced to go wide and lead from the front come Saturday with Japan’s Real Impact and gun three-year-old Hallowed Crown both drawing nasty gates.
Even with all the emergencies coming out the pair will be wide in the field of 20 with Real Impact coming into 18 and the Bart & James Cummings-trained Hallowed Crown into 20.
Barrier 18 hasn’t produced a Doncaster Mile winner in the past three decades while we have to go back to 1990 for Super Impose’s first of two Doncaster Mile victories to find the last champ to do it from gate 20.
Despite the wide barrier Hallowed Crown has moved into top spot in the updated Doncaster Mile odds and is followed by second emergency Kermadec who is being kept safe in betting despite the Chris Waller-trained colt, drawn in 19, far from assured a run in Saturday’s major.
Gate 18 is one of four hoodoo Doncaster Mile barriers in the past 30 odd years producing no winners along with two, three and 15.
Currently the other historically-poor gates in the race belong this year to Happy Trails (2), Leebaz (3) and Cosmic Endeavour (15).
Tommy Berry who won the Doncaster Mile two years ago rides Hallowed Crown, while last start George Ryder Stakes winner Real Impact has James McDonald staying on after the duo won the 1500m Group 1 on March 21 in the galloper’s maiden run down under.
The most successful Doncaster Mile barrier (since 1983) with a total of five winners is barrier 12, most recently producing Vison And Power (2009) for the win who was also the last horse to complete the George Ryder Stakes – Doncaster Mile double in a single season.
This year barrier 12 was drawn by the John Thompson-trained Hooked but with the emergencies out will belong to Gai Waterhouse’s star French import Pornichet (13) to be ridden by Kerrin McEvoy chasing his first Doncaster win.
Waterhouse meanwhile is out to surpass her father TJ Smith who she shares the current record of seven Doncaster Mile wins as she chases an eighth victory in 2015.
Pornichet gets in on 51kg and earned his spot in the field with an impressive one and three-quarter length victory in last weekend’s Group 3 Sellwood Stakes (2000m) at Rosehill.
The next most successful Doncaster Mile barrier in that time with four winners, including Rangirangdoo (2010) and More Joyous (2012) in the past half a decade, is 10.
Barrier 10 is drawn currently by Peter Moody’s lightly-weighted Group 1 Coolmore Classic (1500m) winning mare Plucky Belle (50kg) but with the emergencies out has Moriarty’s name on it.
Last year’s Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Falls, who also won in 2013 and is out to become the first triple winner of the handicap classic in history drawn in barrier 20 with the 58kg top weight in 2015, jumped from barrier 13.
As mentioned above, Waterhouse’s Pornichet has barrier 13 currently but it will be stablemate Cosmic Endeavour (currently in 15) who gets the gate with the emergencies taken out of the mix.
Waterhouse has a total of three runners in this year’s race with her recent Canterbury Stakes winner Cosmic Endeavour, out to improve on a last in the George Ryder Stakes last time out, and Pornichet joined in the line-up by Diamond Drille.
Third to Plucky Belle in the Coolmore last start, Al Maher mare Diamond Drille has a horror barrier 22 draw to overcome with Frenchman Thomas Huet booked for the ride.
Three Doncaster Mile runners’ jockeys meanwhile have been allowed to ride half-a-kilo above their mount’s allocated weight with Dwayne Dunn (Ninth Legion), Craig Williams (It’s Somewhat) and Corey Brown (Suavito).
Suavito, who will now carry 50.5kg, has won her past four consecutive starts including the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield last month and the Group 2 Blamey Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on March 14.
She came up trumps with the inside alley for Saturday’s major, the four-year-old Thorn Park mare looking to be the first Doncaster Mile winner from barrier one since Glen Boss won aboard Haradasun in 2007 during a three-straight winning streak in the race for Boss.
See below for the full Doncaster Mile 2015 field, barriers, jockeys and weights.
Then head over to Ladbrokes.com.au for the hottest odds on the big one in Sydney on Saturday!
2015 Doncaster Mile Final Field & Barrier Draw
Randwick Race 9 (5:10pm) – 04/04/2015
# | Form (Last 10) | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Br. | Wgt. | Hcp. Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2x44140x50 | SACRED FALLS (NZ) | Chris Waller | Zac Purton | 20 | 58kg | 116 |
2 | 820561×623 | HAPPY TRAILS | Paul Beshara | Damien Oliver | 2 | 56.5kg | 113 |
3 | 5x15x084x0 | WORLD ACE (JPN) | Yasutoshi Ikee | Nicholas Hall | 16 | 55.5kg | 111 |
4 | x89x0x61x1 | REAL IMPACT (JPN) | Noriyuki Hori | James McDonald | 21 | 55kg | 110 |
5 | 55610831×8 | MORIARTY (IRE) | Chris Waller | TBA | 11 | 54.5kg | 109 |
6 | 5x22220x74 | ROYAL DESCENT | Chris Waller | Joao Moreira | 18 | 54kg | 112 |
7 | x7334x1272 | NINTH LEGION | Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes | Dwayne Dunn | 8 | 52.5kg | 105 |
8 | 1812731804 | PUCCINI (NZ) | Peter & Jacob McKay | Craig Newitt | 17 | 52.5kg | 105 |
9 | 13111×4210 | COSMIC ENDEAVOUR | Gai Waterhouse | Tim Clark | 15 | 52kg | 108 |
10 | 11x114x113 | HALLOWED CROWN | Bart & James Cummings | Tommy Berry | 23 | 52kg | 105 |
11 | x471315x47 | HOOKED | John P Thompson | Dom Tourneur | 12 | 52kg | 104 |
12 | 5373350×19 | IT’S SOMEWHAT (USA) | John O’Shea | Craig Williams | 4 | 51.5kg (inc. 1.0kg penalty) | 101 |
13 | 41x879x803 | DIAMOND DRILLE | Gai Waterhouse | Thomas Huet | 22 | 51kg | 106 |
14 | 139x41x951 | PORNICHET (FR) | Gai Waterhouse | Kerrin McEvoy | 13 | 51kg | 102 |
15 | 15565×4706 | DESTINY’S KISS | Joseph Pride | 9 | 51kg | 102 | |
16 | 1112x10x86 | ARABIAN GOLD | David Vandyke | Chad Schofield | 5 | 50.5kg | 105 |
17 | 1212x84x63 | LEEBAZ (NZ) | Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes | TBA | 3 | 50.5kg | 101 |
18 | 0x2211x288 | RUDY | Helen Page | Luke Tarrant (a) | 6 | 50.5kg | 101 |
19 | x12N311x11 | SUAVITO (NZ) | Nigel Blackiston | Corey Brown | 1 | 50kg | 100 |
20 | x24280x621 | PLUCKY BELLE | Peter G Moody | Ms Kathy O’Hara | 10 | 50kg | 99 |
21e | x11138x224 | SWEYNESSE | John O’Shea | Sam Clipperton | 7 | 50kg | 101 |
22e | 121×4343 | KERMADEC (NZ) | Chris Waller | Glen Boss | 19 | 50kg | 99 |
23e | 27x1080x57 | AOMEN (IRE) | Anthony Cummings | TBA | 14 | 50kg | 100 |
24e | 3480×50466 | MALAVIO | Steve Englebrecht | TBA | 24 | 50kg | 100 |