In Brief
- Good and bad draws for Ladbrokes Hobart Cup contenders.
- Toorak Affair draws fairly.
- Taikomochi will need luck from outside barrier.
The Ladbrokes Hobart Cup barrier draw delivered good and bad news for the 12 final acceptors today with local favourite Toorak Affair drawing fairly in barrier eight.
Toorak Affair won the Brighton Cup two starts back in Launceston and last Saturday she scored an effortless five-length win in the weight-for-age Summer Cup (2200m) on the new Elwick track.
The Michael Trinder-trained mare has won four of her past five starts and is clearly the pick of the seven local contenders in the field.
Of the five interstate invaders, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Taikomochi fared the worst with the front-running stayer ending up with the outside gate (12).
The Patrick Payne-trained Home by Midnight also drew wide in gate nine while Sydneysider Morton’s Fork drew ideally in gate one that will suit the on-pace stayer.
Last season’s Tasmanian Oaks winner Shady Hustle will start from barrier seven, which her trainer Stephen Lockhart says is ideal.
“I said before the draw that anywhere from gates 3-7 would be great so we have achieved the goal,” Lockhart said.
“The mare needed the run when second to Toorak Affair in the Brighton Cup and I opted to give her a good solid gallop after the last race at Elwick on Saturday instead of running her in the Summer Cup.”
The Ladbrokes Hobart Cup will be run as race nine of 10 on Sunday with the first scheduled to start at 11.50am and the Cup at 4.35pm.
Race 9 – Group 3 $250,000 Group 3 Ladbrokes Hobart Cup 2400m.
1. Home By Midnight (NZ) (Patrick Payne) W J Egan (9) 58.0
2. Taikomochi ( Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott) A Hyeronimus (12) 57.5
3. Morton’s Fork (Richard Litt) D M Ganderton (1) 56.5
4. Exoteric (GB) ( Charlie Goggin & Luella Meaburn) C Newitt (2) 54.5
5. Toorak Affair (Michael Trinder) A Darmanin (8) 54.0
6. He Ekscels (NZ) (Richard Laming) B McDougall (4) 54.0
7. Appmat (Brendan McShane) Z Spain (10) 54.0
8. Shady Hustle (Stephen Lockhart) B Muhcu (7) 54.0
9. Dogmatic (Richard Laming) R Bayliss (11) 54.0
10. Glass Warrior (John Blacker) Ms S M Carr (6) 54.0
11. Gee Gee Fiorente ( Leon, Dean & Trent Wells) J M Winks (5) 54.0
12. Kanji (Kaye Milne) M Ulucinar (3) 54.0
Watch Toorak Affair win the Summer Cup in Hobart on Saturday.