In Brief
- Trinder's mare ready for her biggest challenge.
- Toorak Affair form hard to fault.
- Newhart best chance despite immaturity.
Talented mare Toorak Affair has the form to warrant starting favourite in Wednesday’s $100,000 Ladbrokes Devonport Cup and her trainer Michael Trinder agrees with that line of thought.
Toorak Affair goes into the race having won at her past three starts that includes the Sheffield Cup, which is the main lead-up race to the Devonport club’s showcase event.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Toorak Affair started favourite because her form warrants that assessment,” Trinder said.
The mare arrived in Michael Trinder’s stable midway through 2018 and after winning first-up for her new stable, Trinder aimed her at the 2019 Devonport Cup but she strained a tendon on the morning of the race and had to be withdrawn.
But this preparation the mare has thrived on racing with a first-up second followed by three impressive wins.
“I couldn’t be happier with the mare going into Wednesday’s race.
“She had a 1400-metre workout this morning (Monday) and she will do some slow work Tuesday and I’ll probably swim her on race morning at about 5.30am and then head to her paddock until it’s time to go to the races.
“She will line up on equal terms with the other horses and then fate will take its place.”
With no genuine speed in the race, Trinder expects rider Anthony Darmanin to have her placed in the first four or five by the time they hit the turn out of the home straight.
“The three horses that led in the Sheffield Cup are not in this race, so the cup is devoid of pace, but I am confident we can settle in the first four or five and from there she should be given every possible chance to win.”
Speed Force is top weight with 59.5kg and his trainer Bill Ryan is hoping the seven-year-old can go one better than his second to Eastender last year.
The gelding also went around in the weight-for-age Tasmanian Stakes over 1600m in Launceston last Saturday night, in which he finished seventh.
“I knew the horse would want another 1600-metre run under his belt before the cup and Saturday’s Tasmanian Stakes was the best possible solution,” Ryan said.
“I have no qualms about backing him up so quickly because he has done it before and with success.
“This is definitely not the best field ever assembled in a Devonport Cup so the decision to accept for the race has already been justified.”
Lightly raced four-year-old Newhart was at one stage struggling to gain a start in the cup after finishing second to Toorak Affair in the Sheffield Cup which offered the winner ballot-free entry into the Devonport Cup.
Outside of the top weight, Newhart meets close to the same line-up he met in the Sheffield Cup, so with that run under his belt he looms as the best winning chance of the 11 acceptors, despite his immaturity.
Longford trainer John Blacker has five acceptors – Beaufort Lad, Longford Cup winner Triple Strip, Magnasa, Glass Warrior and last year’s Devonport Cup placegetter Settler‘s Stone.
Blacker rates Beaufort Lad his best chance but he won’t discount the chances of his other our runners.
Gee Gee Fiorente is a last-start winner on the track in a benchmark 66 handicap over the cup distance of 1880m and his trainer Leon Wells is quietly confident the gelded son of Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente can emerge triumphant.
Watch Toorak Affair hold on to defeat Newhart in the Sheffield Cup.