Online bookmaker Unibet preview Saturday’s Doomben 10,000 at Doomben racecourse with the Ciaron Maher trained Azkadellia headlining the field and odds.
Multiple Group 1 winning mare Azkadellia provides the star billing at this Saturday’s Doomben 10,000 (Race 7) meeting in Brisbane.
Ciaron Maher’s charge was one of the headline performers during The Championships, building on placings in the Coolmore Classic and Doncaster to score a runaway win in the Queen of the Turf under Damien Oliver.
With Olly suspended, Mark Zahra takes the ride and we are bracing ourselves for a solid push by Unibet Australia punters come race day, particularly with the withdrawal of several leading contenders leaving the race slightly short on overall quality.
While her outside draw poses no real concern given that she will get back and run on, our Brisbane traders are happy to accommodate punters once again.
The mare is versatile but the step back from a mile to the 1350m here is a minor query and Maher himself has admitted to some surprise at her short quote.
Maher asserted the horse may not be best suited to the pattern of racing at Doomben with the Stradbroke Handicap her ultimate goal this campaign.
Outside of Azkadellia the rest of the field are a reasonably even bunch with a number of challengers coming out of Malaguerra’s BTC Cup a fortnight ago.
Dothraki loomed up to win on that occasion but lacked the fight to finish it off and Blake Shinn’s brutal assessment that the chestnut lacks a killer instinct is reason enough for us to oppose him too.
Fell Swoop was somewhat one paced in the BTC but in his defence the wide draw didn’t help and having landed the rails here we are interested to see how he performs stepping out beyond six furlongs for the first time.
At the prices, we are also expecting a strong showing from Bjorn Baker’s Music Magnate, who ran into a pretty smart horse in Clearly Innocent at Scone.
His trainer later suggesting that the horse might be ridden more quietly in Brisbane as he, too, heads to the Stradbroke.
Of the others, Chris Waller won this race with Boban last year and he saddles up Delectation, the Darley Classic winner looking for a change in fortunes.
TIP: Azkedellia at $2.80 with Unibet.com.au