GEEGEES GOLDENGIRL has been installed favourite at $4.20 with fixed odds wagering operator UBET to win today’s Betfair Exchange Launceston Cup at the UBET Racing centre.
With rain forecast throughout the day it only enhances the mare’s chances of emerging triumphant in the Group 3 event over 2400 metres.
The Stuart Gandy-trained mare was last season’s top three-year-old filly with the $100,000 Strutt Stakes and Tasmania Oaks two of her impressive wins.
This season she has only one win from seven starts but that was in the $100,000 Devonport Cup and she was narrowly beaten by Up Cups in the weight-for-age Summer Cup and the Hobart Cup at her two most recent outings.
She has been well backed with UBET to win the Launceston Cup with her price forming from $5.50 to $4.20 favourite just ahead of Up Cups ($4.80) who has been her nemeses this season.
While owners Paul and Elizabeth Geard are no strangers to winning at Group level in Tasmania having won two Hobart Cups and a Launceston Cup with their star Geegees Blackflash, victory in today’s Group 3 would be a turning point in Gandy’s training career.
“I set myself a goal this season to win a major cup and I’ve achieved that by winning the Devonport Cup with Goldengirl but to win a Group 3 with her would clearly be the highlight of my career so far,” Gandy said.
“This mare is such an honest galloper that she really deserves to win a Group race and hopefully that eventuates tomorrow.
“She was gallant in winning the Devonport Cup and a bit unlucky not to have won at her past two starts.
“She has drawn a good barrier in this race so she shouldn’t have to work as hard as she did in the Hobart Cup.
“From barrier four I expect her to be in the first half dozen and provided it is run at a decent tempo then I know she will be full of running at the end of the race.”
Up Cups Has plenty of support despite his wide gate (15) but trainer David Brunton is quietly confident the horse and rider David Pires can overcome the obstacle.