Big Early Autumn Caulfield Meeting Offers 8 Group Level Races
Saturday is a big day for Thoroughbred racing at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday.
We had a look at the feature, the Group 1 C F Orr Stakes and concluded that picking the winner would require four lucky rabbits’ feet, quite possibly the rest of the rabbit and any other talismans of good fortune anyone might care to use.
There are seven other Group level races at Caulfield on the day.
The Group 2 Autumn Stakes and Rubiton Stakes will field quality horses.
There are four Group 3 races. They are the Boronia Stakes, the Carlyon Cup and the Geoffrey Bellmaine Stakes, but the punters will be watching closely the two Blue Diamond Preludes, one for two-year-old fillies and the other for two-year-old colts and geldings.
The winner of the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes later in February could well be in the fields of one of the preludes.
Tipping a race for two-year-olds can be challenging, but the filly prelude will see a field of 12 headed by Muntaseera ($2.80) with Fresh just behind at $2.90. A Beautiful Night ($5.50) is the only other filly in single digits, but as we have seen more than a few times, juvenile races can defy the handicappers.
The favourite for the colts and geldings prelude is Hanseatic ($2.25). He has won his two races, if two races can be used as a guide.
Next is Snowden horse Rulership ($3.20), winner of one race from one try.
The preludes are early in the meeting, so punters who make good selections might have pockets full of cash for the C F Orr Stakes and the Group 2 races, so some might be willing to take a big plunge. Willing or tempted, it is hard to say which is more apt.
Microphone is the favourite for the Group 2 Autumn Stakes, currently quoted at $3.20, so there are some dividends on offer for this race.
Anaheed, has shortened a dollar, from $4.80 when the markets went up, in to $3.80.