Early favourite in Queensland Derby betting for next month’s feature Mongolian Khan leads a field of fellow three-year-old stayers at Doomben Racecourse this weekend in the 2017 Rough Habit Plate.

2017 Queensland Derby favourite Mongolian Khan runs in the Rough Habit Plate field at Doomben on Saturday. Photo: Steve Hart.

The first of the traditional lead-ups to the $600,000 Group 1 Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on June 10, this Saturday’s $125,000 Group 3 Mittys Rough Habit Plate (2000m) closes the Doomben 10,000 Day card as Race 8 at 4:39pm (AEST).

A full field of 16 line-up for this season’s Rough Habit Plate including the Darren Weir-trained Mongolian Khan who is the current $5.50 early favourite in pre-field Queensland Derby betting at Ladbrokes.com.au.

Drawn the inside alley in barrier one on Saturday Weir’s in-form Kiwi expat has Brenton Avdulla aboard, retaining the ride after a first-up win down under for the duo on April 15 at Royal Randwick.

After an unplaced run behind subsequent Rosehill Guineas winner Gingernuts in the Group 1 NZ Derby (2400m), Pluck gelding Mongolian Wolf had his first run in Australia taking out the Group 3 Frank Packer Plate (2000m).

He is out to make it two-from-two heading to Brisbane on Saturday and retain his Queensland Derby favouritism.

The Chris Waller-trained Frank Packer Plate runner-up Veladero is also in the mix for the rematch in Saturday’s Rough Habit Plate field.

Kerrin McEvoy rides the Medaglia D’Oro colt who hasn’t won a race since the Group 3 Gloaming Stakes (1800m) at Rosehill in September last year.

Veladero is on the improve this campaign, has won a subsequent Rosehill trial on May 8 and is a $13 all-in shot for the Queensland Derby before this weekend’s lead-up.

The other shortest-priced in the futures Queensland Derby odds running on Saturday is Order Again ($7) who has work to do from the outside alley (16 of 16) in the Rough Habit.

Brian Smith’s locally-trained Iffraaj gelding was last seen blitzing his rivals in a Benchmark 70 over 1500m at Eagle Farm on May 8 by a 7.5 length winning margin in the wet and will relish the likely Heavy Doomben track this weekend.

The other widest drawn in the field out in barrier 15 is the Paul Messara-trained son of Redoute’s Choice Caerless Choice.

He has winning form up to a mile and was last seen finishing fourth in the Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m).

Others coming off good lead-up form include the Brent Stanley-trained Violate and New Zealand raider Shocking Luck.

Sebring colt Violate was sixth to Mongolian Wolf two back before his devastatingly close second to Dreams Aplenty in the Group 3 Gunsynd Classic (1600m) at Eagle Farm a fortnight ago.

Shocking Luck is prepared across the Tasman by Stephen Autridge & Jamie Richards and is out to frank the good Kiwi form in the Australian staying races for three-year-olds.

He has an excellent record over the Rough Habit distance with a win and two seconds from three goes over 2000m and comes off a second over 1500m at Ipswich when beaten narrowly in his first Australian start.

See below for the full Rough Habit Plate 2017 field & barriers, betting to open shortly at Ladbrokes.com.au who are home to the best all-in Brisbane Group 1 racing odds.

2017 Rough Habit Plate Final Field & Barrier Draw

Doomben Race 8 (4:39pm) – 13/05/2017