A bumper Doncaster Mile Day featuring four Group 1 races is nearly here and below is the exclusive Races.com.au tips on Saturday’s major at Royal Randwick – the Doncaster Mile 2015.
The last of the Group 1 quartet for Day 1 of The Championships this Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival, the lucrative $3 million Group 1 The Star 150th Doncaster Mile (1600m) runs as Race 9 this weekend at 5:10pm (AEDT).
Favourite in the above-capacity field for the handicap classic paying $5.50 in the latest Doncaster Mile odds at Ladbrokes.com.au, who are offering Best Tote or SP + 20% on the race, is three-year-old Hallowed Crown.
Prepared by Bart & James Cummings the ultra-consistent Street Sense colt is already a dual Group 1 winner thanks to victories in the Golden Rose and Randwick Guineas, and was a close third last time out in the Rosehill Guineas over 2000m.
He drops back in distance, but is up in class taking on the older rivals in the Doncaster Mile where he and jockey Tommy Berry have a nasty barrier 23 (into 20) draw to overcome.
His biggest dangers according to the bookies setting the Doncaster Mile betting markets include Chris Waller’s second emergency Kermadec ($6.50) who is far from guaranteed a run, the better-fancied of the two Japanese raiders in the race Real Impact ($7), Gai Waterhouse’s market mover Pornichet ($8) on the seven day turnaround and Royal Descent ($9.50) out to improve on her second in the race 12 months ago.
So are those under $10 the ones to back in your Doncaster Mile bets this weekend or is there value to be found further down the markets from the likes of Waller’s dual defending champion Sacred Falls ($16) out to make history and a chance if the rain increases, flying mare Suavito ($17) with the inside alley or even lightly-weighted mile specialist Leebaz ($31) who ran third in the Prelude last start?
1st
#14 Pornichet ($8)
Can’t go past the shortest-priced of Waterhouse’s trio in the Doncaster this year. She’s got the gun record of seven wins in the race, which she shares with her father TJ Smith, and think this in-form French import can give her an eighth. She was talking up stablemate Diamond Drille ($26) as an “outstanding” chance on the radio this week, but really the money is deservedly on Vespone four-year-old Pornichet. He won the Group 3 Sandown Stakes (1500m) in Melbourne during the spring and third-up this autumn won again taking out last Saturday’s Group 3 Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) by nearly two lengths. He did it with 55.5kg and Blake Shinn aboard there and drops to a very favourable 51kg with Kerrin McEvoy to replace the suspended Shinn. It’s a tough task to do it on the short back-up but the kilos. The trainer and even the draw (13 into 12), which has produced five Doncaster winners (since 1983), suggests he can do it.
2nd
#6 Royal Descent ($9.50)
Waller’s also got an imposing Doncaster Mile winning record having taken it out four times previously including the past two years on the trot with known mudlark Sacred Falls, a $16 chance to become the first triple winner of the race this weekend. Winner of the 2013 Australian Oaks, this always-honest Redoute’s Choice mare is a perennial runner-up. She hasn’t won a race in two years but boy her record running second in the Group 1s in that time must frustrate connections. She was second past the post in this race last year and was last seen finishing a nice fourth to Real Impact in the George Ryder Stakes, which produced Sacred Falls last year. She’s also yet to win over the mile but has run second in all six of her previous 1600m starts.
3rd
#10 Hallowed Crown ($5.50)
Young and deserving favourite looking to become the first favourite to win the Doncaster since More Joyous (2012) handed Waterhouse her seventh win three years ago. The three-year-olds have a tidy record in the race with 15 wins (since 1983). Comes off a Rosehill Guineas third, which produced Sacred Falls in 2013 for his first at the same age. While the George Ryder over 1500m is the better lead-up historically, Hallowed Crown ticks plenty of boxes (the barrier aside). He’s ridden on Saturday by five-time Doncaster Mile winning hoop Glen Boss, easily has the best win rate (75%) of the field, an 88% place rate and is a former winner over the track and distance. Wet track will certainly help.
Whether you’re backing or sacking our insider Doncaster Mile 2015 betting tips make sure you get the guaranteed best odds by betting online at Ladbrokes.com.au who are offering Best Tote or SP + 20% on all four Group 1s this weekend!
*All odds quoted are Fixed Win from Ladbrokes.com.au and subject to change