Real Love Leads 2016 Brisbane Cup Field & Odds

Darren Weir’s flying former Perth-trained mare Real Love is early favourite to keep the winning streak going with success in the Brisbane Cup 2016 at Eagle Farm Racecourse this Saturday.

Last start Premier’s Cup winning mare Real Love leads betting for Saturday’s 2016 Brisbane Cup at Eagle Farm. Photo: Daniel Costello.

Set to run as Eagle Farm Race 6 at 1:40pm (AEST) on the bumper 10-race Stradbroke Handicap Day line-up, this season’s $300,000 Group 2 Evergreen Turf Brisbane Cup (2400m) features a final field of 12 stayers.

Sitting top of the latest Brisbane Cup odds at Ladbrokes.com.au paying $4.20 for the win is talented Desert King mare Real Love, the five-year-old due to jump from barrier 10 with Brad Rawiller retaining the ride on the previous Perth Cup winner.

Real Love comes off back-to-back Doomben wins this Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival with success in the Group 3 JRA Cup (2000m) and the Group 3 Premier’s Cup (2200m) last month.

Third in this year’s Group 2 Adelaide Cup (3200m) over the two miles back in mid-March, she is set to handle the step up to 2400m without a worry on the weekend and goes up from 58kg in the Premier’s Cup to 58.5kg on Saturday.

Two rivals following in Brisbane Cup betting at an equal $5.50 with early market mover and top weight Ecuador (59kg) and Sir John Hawkwood (57kg).

Sydney’s Gai Waterhouse prepares High Chaparral six-year-old Ecuador who drops a half-kilo from the weight he carried to victory a fortnight back at Randwick in the Listed W.J. McKell Cup (2400m).

That tidy one and three-quarter length victory followed earlier Black-Type success at Rosehill in the Listed Lord Mayor’s Cup (2000m) and earned Eucador a shot at the Group 2 in Queensland on the weekend.

Ecuador has drawn the outside barrier (12), while the David Vandyke-trained Sir John Hawkwood will start closer to the rails in barrier two with Blake Spriggs to ride.

In top form this campaign, Vandyke’s Sir Percy seven-year-old won the Group 3 Sky High Stakes (2000m) first-up in March before a third in the Group 3 Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m) late that month.

His final Brisbane Cup lead-up was a second to Real Love in the JRA Cup and he drops a kilo from the 58kg he had that day when he runs ate Eagle Farm for the first time over a distance he is more than familiar with (5-2-1-0).

Rounding out the hopes under $10 in the Brisbane Cup markets this year at $8 is then Benzini in barrier three with 54.5kg.

Prepared at Hunterville by Adrian & Harry Bull the Tale Of The Cat six-year-old was a Group 3 runner-up in New Zealand two back before a brave third in the Premier’s Cup behind Real Love in his first Australian start a fortnight ago.

Other notable chances at more generous prices for the win include the veteran Chris Waller-trained multiple Group winning eight-year-old Junoob ($10), the rails-drawn Puccini ($10) coming off a Premier’s Cup second to stablemate Real Love and the in-form Iggi Pop ($11).

Peter Robl trains Savabeel seven-year-old Iggi Pop who has run second in his three latest runs in the Toowoomba Cup, Wagga Cup and most recently the McKell Cup behind Ecuador.

Check out the full Brisbane Cup 2016 field, barriers, jockeys, weights and latest Fixed Win odds provided by Ladbrokes.com.au – home of Odds Boost – below.