In Brief
- Mandela Effect has been crying out for a race over 1600m.
- Toorak Affair has returned better than ever.
- Eastender makes his long-awaited return to racing in Tasmanian Stakes.
The race meeting in Launceston on Friday is one of the best at the venue this season with five feature races on the 10-event card.
Included in the features are the three lost from the abandoned Hobart meeting last week and they are the $30,000 Alexandra Plate for two-year-olds, the 3YO $100,000 Tasmanian Guineas and the $30,000 Winzenberg Trophy (1100m).
The $100,000 weight-for-age Kevin Sharkie Tasmanian Stakes (1600m) and the Brighton Cup (2100m) ensure the meeting reads more like a major cup-day program.
The Tasmania Stakes sees the return to racing of triple cups star Eastender who rewrote the record books two seasons back when he won the Devonport, Launceston, and Hobart cups to become the first since Brallos (1976) to achieve the feat.
Eastender (Craig Newitt) winning the 2019 Hobart Cup.
Eastender was embroiled in a major stewards’ inquiry on the eve of the 2019 Adelaide Cup that resulted in his trainer Barry Campbell being disqualified for two years.
The gelding ended up with the Chis Waller stable in Sydney where he performed admirably until he suffered a bleeding attack in the Canberra Cup last year that led to a mandatory three-month break from racing.
Back in the care of Leanne Gaffney, who had a day out in Devonport on Wednesday training four winners including the Ladbrokes Devonport Cup with stable star Newhart, Eastender should be running on at the business and of the race.
“Eastender probably can’t win but there had to be starting point for him leading to the major cups and this race was as good as any,” Gaffney said.
Mandela Effect will start favourite in the Tasmanian Stakes and rightfully so given his record at weight-for-age conditions in Tasmania that includes winning this race last year.
The Scott Brunton-trained gelding had his colours lowered at his second in the Newmarket Handicap and a last-start third in the weight-for-age Conquering over 1400m.
But stepping up to 1600m will suit the gelded son of Turffontein and his opening price of $2.50 appeared generous given the lack of genuine weight-for-age depth in the race.
Toorak Affair won the Conquering and looms as the main danger with four-year-old mare Mystical Pursuit the next best after her second to Toorak Affair in the Conquering.
Brighton Cup
The Brighton Cup is normally run in Hobart and offers the winner ballot-free entry to the Hobart Cup, but loses nothing by running the event on the Launceston circuit, due to the transfer of the meeting owing to Hobart track maintenance.
Longford Cup winner Glass Warrior is likely a strong winning chance again but there should be plenty of support for Shady Hustle and the free-striding grey Sir Simon with White Hawk, backing up from the Devonport Cup on Wednesday, but must be considered a top each-way prospect.
White Hawk was an eye-catching second in the Longford Cup last Friday so when he jumps from a near outside gate today (10) he will be having his third run in the space of a week.
“He hardly raised a sweat in the Longford Cup, and it was much the same in Devonport, so it won’t be an issue for him backing up in the Brighton Cup on Friday,” said trainer Angela Brakey.
Watch Toorak Affair win the Conquering Stakes in Launceston in which Mystical Pursuit and Mandela Effect finished second and third respectively.