This Saturday in Adelaide Morphettville Racecoursewill host the latest autumn Group 1 with a talented field of three-year-olds set to face off in the South Australian Derby 2014.
Favourite Order Of The Sun has come up trumps with gate four in the 2014 South Australian Derby field. Photo: Steve Hart.
Scheduled to run as Race 7 at 3:35pm (local) this year’s $500,000 Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m) has drawn a capacity line-up of final acceptors with 16 starters and three emergencies.
Heading the South Australian Derby field is the Leon MacDonald & Andrew Gluyas-trained Gamblin’ Guru who has their work cut out for them after drawing the extreme outside barrier.
The New Approach gelding made it back-to-back stakes wins at the track last Saturday backing up from their Listed Port Adelaide Guineas (1800m) win with another narrow victory.
This time they had a nose to spare over Excites Zelady in the Group 3 Chairman’s Stakes (2000m), a race that has produced two of the past 10 South Australian Derby winners.
A top fancy then to step up to the 2500m, Gamblin’ Guru with winning form up to 2200m at Geelong during the spring, the Chairman’s winner has suffered a blow with the ‘visitor’s gate’.
While on paper gate 19, which becomes 16 on race day, looks bad history shows that it is actually the equal most successful South Australian Derby barrier producing five winners since 1983 along with barrier five.
Also coming via a run in the Chairman’s last weekend are the likes of the Chris Bieg-trained runner-up Exictes Zelady also with a wide barrier (17), Danny O’Brien’s third placed Victorian raider Gravitational who has a jockey change from Craig Williams to James Winks and fourth placed Kushadasi for local trainer Richard Jolly.
Early favourite in the South Australian Derby betting markets meanwhile is the Gai Waterhouse-trained Order Of The Sun who has come up trumps with gate four.
Vlad Duric has the ride on the Encosta De Lago colt who comes off a blistering win in the Listed VRC St Leger (2800m) at Flemington last weekend when ridden by dual Group 1 hoop Chad Schofield.
They, like Gamblin’ Guru, must handle the short turnaround but are in a top position to strike while the iron is hot and go back-to-back.
The other major player who ran in the VRC St Leger in Melbourne last weekend is David Hayes’ runner-up Honey Steel’s Gold, the Keep The Faith gelding out to turn the tables on Order Of The Sun after going down by a huge seven lengths.
Along with Honey Steel’s Gold Hayes has also paid up for recent Cranbourne winner Surging Wave who failed when 10th in the Group 1 ATC Derby (2400m) last time out.
The other notable last start winners in the field are then the Ken Keys-trained Bring Something (barrier 14) who beat them home in the Listed Galilee Final (2400m) at Caulfield on April 12 and Jolly’s Barley A Moment gelding Majestic Moment (barrier five) who are both after their third on the trot.
As well as Hayes and Jolly other trainers with multiple acceptors include Anthony Cummings (Surge Ahead and Best Case) and Peter Moody (Crime Fighter and third emergency Stellarized).
See below for the full South Australian Derby 2014 field, barriers, jockeys and set weights.
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2014 South Australian Derby Final Field & Barrier Draw
Morphettville Race 7 – 3:35pm – 03/05/2014
| # | Form (Last 10) | Horse | Trainer | Jockey | Br. | Wgt. | Hcp. Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 221x52F211 | GAMBLIN’ GURU | Leon Macdonald & Andrew Gluyas | Jason Holder | 19 | 56.5kg | 90 |
| 2 | 24144×1538 | BEST CASE (NZ) | Anthony Cummings | Damien Oliver | 7 | 56.5kg | 87 |
| 3 | 211×291124 | KUSHADASI | Richard Jolly | Steven Arnold | 3 | 56.5kg | 85 |
| 4 | 1136×17081 | ORDER OF THE SUN | Gai Waterhouse | Vlad Duric | 4 | 56.5kg | 83 |
| 5 | 79512×5262 | EXCITES ZELADY | Chris Bieg | Amy Herrmann | 17 | 56.5kg | 82 |
| 6 | 1151×76370 | SURGE AHEAD | Anthony Cummings | Chris Symons | 10 | 56.5kg | 78 |
| 7 | 048×817632 | HONEY STEEL’S GOLD | David Hayes | Matthew Neilson | 12 | 56.5kg | 73 |
| 8 | 2457×65811 | BRING SOMETHING | Ken Keys | Mark Zahra | 14 | 56.5kg | 72 |
| 9 | x0170x6110 | CRIME FIGHTER | Peter G Moody | – | 9 | 56.5kg | 72 |
| 10 | 63421×3411 | MAJESTIC MOMENT | Richard Jolly | Joe Bowditch | 5 | 56.5kg | 68 |
| 11 | x5x2317314 | MORE REWARDING | Mick Price | Dean Yendall | 2 | 56.5kg | 67 |
| 12 | 14579×9610 | SURGING WAVE | David Hayes | Michael Walker | 15 | 56.5kg | 66 |
| 13 | 419747×623 | GRAVITATIONAL | Danny O’Brien | James Winks | 8 | 56.5kg | 65 |
| 14 | 0x3161230 | FAMILY PRIDE (NZ) | Murray Johnson | Cory Parish | 18 | 56.5kg | 65 |
| 15 | 455×52235 | REDNAV | Greg Eurell | – | 13 | 56.5kg | 62 |
| 16 | 14×1453 | SCRATCHY BOTTOM | Michael Kent | Dom Tourneur | 1 | 54.5kg | 74 |
| 17e | 9×56123506 | LORD ATHENAEUM (NZ) | Stuart Webb | – | 6 | 56.5kg | 61 |
| 18e | 9402×3201 | WORD OF MOUTH | Leon Corstens | Jamie Mott | 11 | 56.5kg | 61 |
| 19e | 01×054 | STELLARIZED | Peter G Moody | – | 16 | 56.5kg | 61 |
