Following an extremely busy week of racing at Caulfield, Geelong, The Valley and elsewhere, weekend eyes will start at Ballarat’s stand-alone Saturday Cup meeting before ending at Sha Tin in Hong Kong. In between, they will dart all around Australia.
Our Ballarat descension will be short, contesting just one race – the McKellar Mile at 2.30pm. It contains, however, strong artillery with three combatants.
Making his Australian debut is the Phillip Stokes-trained Deakin, who was twice a winner in Ireland for Joseph O’Brien and contested the prestigious Royal Ascot carnival in 2024. He has race form around one-time Melbourne Cup favourite, Crystal Black and beat home subsequent Bendigo Cup winner, Sea King, at Royal Ascot, so we’ve little doubt that he will measure up to a strong level here in Australia in Stokes’ care. He’s trialled well in preparation for his debut and, while short of his best distance, we expect him to give a sight on his Australian debut for Daniel Stackhouse.
Deakin finished 7th (from 19) at Royal Ascot in 2024.
Continuing his progression from a long layoff, Spirit of Gaylard will look to build on his Geelong return four weeks ago. He made steady ground from the rear of the field on that occasion without ever looking like he would get into winning contention. Hopefully, we continue to see improvement as his fitness base increases and he remains sound for Mitch Freedman. A patient ownership group with a special horse, a ‘one race at a time’ stance is taken. Jordan Childs takes the ride.
The third piece of our arsenal is the Andrew Bobbin-trained Belthil. His preparation hasn’t gone to plan to date, but he is in far better order than his recent race form suggests. He would need to return to his best to consider himself a winning hope in this race, but we believe that is possible with Jamie Mott in the saddle.
Following runners at Morphettville (Bellakai / Symon Wilde), Eagle Farm (Holstein / Matt Dunn), Werribee (Salchow / Nick Ryan and Daiquiri / Busuttin & Young) and Hawkesbury (Tenniel / Annabel Neasham) across the remainder of Saturday and Sunday, our attention will divert to Sha Tin and Docklands’ attempt at Group 1 glory in the Hong Kong Mile on Sunday evening.
Docklands hasn’t been seen over the mile since his Royal Ascot outing, finishing 2nd at Group 1 level behind one of the world’s best milers in Charyn. Subsequent runs behind City of Troy and Via Sistina (twice) have been over the longer 2000m journey, and questions remain as to whether Docklands runs a strong 2000m. Back to the mile, he gets a chance to prove that his Royal Ascot placing wasn’t a fluke, and he himself can be ranked amongst the world’s best milers.
Docklands finished 2nd in the Group 1 Queen Anne at Royal Ascot this year.
Harry Eustace’s team has done an exceptional job with Docklands, having been away from home for the best part of three months and still having him, seemingly, in excellent health and condition. With Mark Zahra on board on Sunday, we hope all connections receive great reward for effort for a preparation well handled.