Race favourite Entriviere has work to do from a wide barrier 17 draw when Mark Walker’s Kiwi-trained mare takes on a full field in Saturday’s 2022 Kingsford-Smith Cup at Eagle Farm Racecourse.

The five-year-old daughter of Tavistock is currently engaged in a two-horse betting battle ahead of the Group 1 $700,000 Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) on Saturday after Entriviere was a surprise acceptor for the weight-for-age event.

The Kingsford-Smith Cup is now one of three Group 1 features to run at Eagle Farm with the addition of the rescheduled Doomben Cup featuring Zaaki.

Current Kingsford-Smith Cup betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au have Entriviere on top at $4.60 despite her wide gate for jockey Opie Bosson to overcome.

Favourites have a poor record in the event, formerly run as the BTC Cup at Doomben, with Impending ($4.80EF in 2018) the first to salute for the punters since Black Caviar (2011).

Walker is hoping the favourites’ hoodoo can be broken by his Group 1 NZ Railway Stakes winner after her eye-catching lead-up running a half-length third to Mazu in the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 (1200m) at the Eagle Farm track on May 14.

Originally the stable, based in Te Akau across the ditch, were planning to bypass the Kingsford-Smith Cup and focus on having their mare prime for a run in the Group 1 $1.5 million Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) on June 11.

The release of the Stradbroke Handicap weights however saw Entriviere allocated 55.5kg, a worrying weight according to Walker who quickly amended the program.

“Originally it was the plan to skip it (the Kingsford-Smith Cup), but with the weather around we decided to have a bit of a rethink about it,” Walker told News Corp this week.

“When the weights came out for the Stradbroke, we felt it wasn’t really a winnable weight so we had a good, hard think about it and decided to go this Saturday.

“I knew with Kementari in there, he’d be top weight so it gave me a rough idea of what we would get – I was hoping there might be another horse that was a late arrival and come in ahead of him.

“She has put on five kilos since her last race so we are very happy with her and thought we’d roll the dice.

“When she got out onto the better ground last time, she flew home so that was why we changed our mind a little bit.

“We did think she’d go good first up but it was always going to be hard with the barrier draw. She has always proven to be a high-class mare.”

Runner-up in that key lead-up, Godolphin-raced three-year-old Paulele, is the danger again on Saturday in the rematch following closely at Kingsford-Smith Cup odds of $4.80.

The James Cummings-trained Dawn Approach colt chases his first win since February’s Group 3 Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m), but has been competitive in plenty since.

He ran third to Nature Strip in April’s Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes (1200m) and was third again in the Group 2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint (1200m) in the mud behind subsequent Doomben 10,000 winner Mazu.

The barest of margins separated him and Mazu in a photo-finish thriller in the Doomben 10,000 and he has strong claims against the older horses again on Saturday.

So dominant are the Doomben 10,000 place-getters in Kingsford-Smith Cup betting this weekend that no other runners are under double-figures for the win.

The next best in the Kingsford-Smith Cup odds include: Desleigh Forster’s early market mover Apache Chase ($12), the Gregory Hickman-trained Magic Millions Cup winner from the summer Eleven Eleven ($13), Ellsberg ($13) last seen running third to Cascadian in Randwick’s Group 1 All Aged Stakes on April 16 and the Tony Gollan-trained Magic Millions Sprint winning mare Isotope ($13).

Local Better Than Ready four-year-old Apache Chase is out to add to his impressive Eagle Farm record having won seven of his 12 previous starts at the track.

He was last seen running second to Emerald Kingdom in Rockhampton’s The Archer (1300m), which was his first run since finishing a neck third in the Gold Coast’s Magic Millions Cup (1400m) in mid-January, and he will appreciate the return home on Saturday.

The 2022 Kingsford-Smith Cup is set to run as Eagle Farm Race 9 at 3:58pm (AEST) and the latest markets are available in full here courtesy of Ladbrokes.com.au.

2022 Kingsford-Smith Cup Final Field & Barrier Draw

No	Last 10	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight	Probable Weight	Penalty	Hcp Rating
1	174185×350	PRIVATE EYE	Joseph Pride	Brenton Avdulla	16	59kg			109
2	18x5x57304	LAWS OF INDICES (IRE)	Annabel Neasham	Ms Rachel King	21	59kg			108
3	12712×1273	ELLSBERG	Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou	Nash Rawiller	12	59kg			108
4	756x4181x4	ELEVEN ELEVEN	Gregory Hickman	Hugh Bowman	4	59kg			107
5	0x114133x2	APACHE CHASE	Desleigh Forster	Jim Byrne	6	59kg			107
6	10x20x7986	WILD PLANET	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	William Pike	19	59kg			105
7	1x14x47x55	ROTHFIRE	Robert Heathcote	James Orman	14	59kg			105
8	x0180x6072	OLMEDO (FR)	Annabel Neasham	Brodie Loy	3	59kg			105
9	3x5555x764	SIGNORE FOX	Peter & Paul Snowden	Ben Thompson	11	59kg			104
10	17100×4170	SIERRA SUE (NZ)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Daniel Moor	20	57kg			113
11	x37664x313	SEPTEMBER RUN	Chris Waller	Craig Williams	7	57kg			111
12	x134x152x3	ENTRIVIERE (NZ)	Mark Walker	Opie Bosson	17	57kg			109
13	2210×10332	PAULELE	James Cummings	James McDonald	8	57kg			107
14	1Lx12x1x07	ISOTOPE	Tony Gollan	Ryan Maloney	13	57kg			105
15	2286×23272	AWAY GAME	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	John Allen	18	57kg			105
16	0x054x2626	BROOKLYN HUSTLE	Jason Warren & Dean Krongold	Ms Jamie Kah	5	57kg			104
17e	6x662x61x2	SCALLOPINI	Steven O’Dea & Matthew Hoysted	Boris Thornton	9	59kg			103
18e	5x43244x70	NICCANOVA	Steve Tregea	Anthony Allen	10	59kg			103
19e	x418x93803	JAMAEA	Robert & Luke Price	Tommy Berry	15	55kg			102
20e	1745×24091	RANCH HAND	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	1	57kg			100
21e	27x1240x66	ALPINE EDGE	Toby & Trent Edmonds	Robbie Fradd	2	57kg			88

Table Credit: Racing Australia.