The Henry Dwyer Racing stable has three runners today with DANSE DE LA LUNE and STRATESSA at Camperdown and MISTER MOGUL at Flemington.
Camperdown – Good (4)
This is Camperdown’s only meeting for the year, the annual Cup Day card. Generally speaking, the track favours horses on speed but a couple of times in recent years they have put significant amounts of water on the track which has seen them ease away form the fence. The track itself is a good layout with a generous 385m home straight and reasonable runs from the 1400m and 1600m starts into the bend. The 1200m start is pretty tricky while they have a reasonable short run to navigate here from the 1000m before they hit the sharp home bend.
Race 1 (12.50pm) TAC Be Races Ready 3YO Maiden Plate
No.5 DANSE DE LA LUNE – Alana Kelly a(2) (Barrier 3)
DANSE DE LA LUNE heads to Camperdown today where she will make her debut in a 1000m Maiden. She has drawn well in gate three and Alana Kelly will ride.
DANSE DE LA LUNE makes her debut here and judging by her most recent Ballarat jump-out she has a good deal of speed. She got back and moved to, and through, the line nicely in her first jump-out this time in at Ballarat on December 22. She was ridden more aggressively in her most recent hit-out at the same venue and won by a space, under relatively light riding. That was one of the faster jump-outs of the morning so the clock backed up the performance.
She has had plenty of issues to date and her debut has been a long time in the making, but with the 54kg, she can roll forward and take plenty of catching.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $3.70 (as at 8am)
Race 6 (3.52pm) Country Road Farm Supplies BM64 Handicap
No.7 STRATESSA – Jack Hill (Barrier 3)
STRATESSA also heads to Camperdown today where she will contest a 1400m BM64. She has drawn gate three and Jack Hill will ride.
STRATESSA is back in grade after heading to Flemington last start where she got back off a fast tempo at the 1400m and only really shirked the task the last 200m. She was OK on a leader-dominated track at Sandown the start prior and her last-to-first win at Hamilton was strong, albeit against moderate opposition. She maps to get a lovely camp on the back of what looks a moderate tempo here and back to a fairly mediocre BM64, she should prove very hard to beat.
The only slight concern is that she is better on a soft track, but her class should carry her a long way in this grade and we are hoping that will be enough to see her get the chocolates.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $3.30 (as at 8am)
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Flemington – Good (4)
The rail at Flemington is out 9m, out form the 6m position seven days ago. The track raced perfectly last week and by all reports from trackwalkers, the track is in perfect order heading into this weekend. Down the straight, you’d expect them to come middle to outside.
Race 7 (5.35pm) Kensington Stakes
No.9 MISTER MOGUL – Jye McNeil (Barrier 9)
MISTER MOGUL heads to Flemington today where he will resume in the 1000m Listed Kensington Stakes. He has drawn gate nine and Jye McNeil will ride.
This is a quality edition of the Kensington Stakes. MISTER MOGUL has been excellent in his two runs at the track and trip, winning a BM78 and running a narrow second to Bumper Blast in a stronger BM90 in the other. This is definitely the strongest race he has contested to date but at least he gets his favoured conditions when tackling a quality race like this. He is a horse that is coming of a break which he hasn’t had in a while, with six weeks in the paddock meaning he is much sounder than he has been for a long time.
This is just a kick-off point today for MISTER MOGUL and he should find some of these too sharp for him today.
TAB WIN Fixed Odds – $71 (as at 8am)