This afternoon’s Monash Stakes at Caulfield comes down to a battle of youth versus experience as three-year-old Lord Of The Sky continues his rise up the sprinting ranks.
The G3 sprint over 1100m has been a good race for three-year-olds with six of that age group successful in the last 20 years, the most recent being the Darren Weir trained and subsequent G1 winner Platelet in 2012. And before her Reward For Effort in 2010.
While there is no doubt about Lord Of The Sky’s potential, from a punting angle he hardly represents value at his current quote of around even money.
Trained by Robbie Laing, Lord Of The Sky has been expertly placed throughout his brief career winning four races from seven starts, importantly all those starts have been over 1000m.
Two runs this campaign has seen him go down narrowly when resuming at Flemington over 1000m then last time out scoring comprehensively in open company over 1000m at Caulfield.
However this afternoon’s race offers a totally different challenge for the youngster, for the first time stepping up to G3 company at weight for age against seasoned older opponents is no easy task which comes back to my point about the odds on offer.
Under the weight for age scale, Lord Of The Sky will carry 58kgs, the heaviest weight of his brief career to date which is an increase in weight of six and a half kilos from his last start victory.
In fact Lord Of The Sky faces the dreaded hoodoo form hat trick of up in weight, up in distance and up in class.
While these facts will not stop him from winning, they will put the youngster to the test and win lose or draw, we will have good measure of where his career stands after the race.
On the bonus side for his chances is his current Timeform rating of 110 is a pound shy of where he needs to be to win the race, the five year average winning Timeform rating currently sitting at 111.
While all eyes will be on Lord Of The Sky, from a punting view point, in my view Le Bonsir offers better value in the race which on paper at least, appears thin for genuine winning hopes.
Prepared by Mick Price at Caulfield, the home track advantage will certainly do his chances no harm.
The son of Choisir has been a consistent performer at this level for quite a while and with a Timeform rating of 116 is the equal top rated performer based on master ratings for the race, Ready To Rip being the other joint top rated galloper.
Le Bonsir has been thereabouts at each of his five starts since resuming from a spell and two runs back was just touched off at Flemington in the Listed Straight Six (1200m) by the promising Lohnspresso.
Last start when in the hands of Jordan Childs, Le Bonsir has little luck around 1200m at Moonee Valley, suffering interference at the top of the straight before going down in a four-way finish.
Senior rider Daniel Moor jumps in the saddle for the first time and it is significant that he and Price are building a handy strike rate together, currently standing at 28%.
Le Bonsir is drawn nicely in two and has the speed to be handy throughout. If he runs anywhere near his best Timeform rating, he is the value bet in the race.
Ready To Rip is another galloper at good odds capable of causing an upset.
A former Queensland-trained sprinter, he has been successful in Melbourne under Peter Moody’s care and at his top would certainly be right in the finish this afternoon.
Despite being winless for 469 days, his last run in the Straight Six indicated he could be close to finding his best form.
Ready To Rip was fourth up from a spell and jumping from a high draw faced the breeze for much of the race eventually running seventh.
At his start prior, Moody had taken the gelding to Adelaide to contest the G1 Goodwood Sprint where he finished under four lengths from Smokin’ Joey after having no luck.
A return to the form that saw him run a close third in the G2 Caulfield Sprint behind Spirit Of Boom over 1100m last October would see him take a strong hand in proceedings.
Speedster African Pulse resumes from a spell and while his record is impeccable at 5 wins from six attempts in that state, class wise he might just struggle to handle this grade.
That said African Pulse will be prominent for a long way and stays under notice for the multiples, especially as he will be racing for the first time as a gelding.
The Monash Stakes is shaping as a defining race for Lord Of The Sky as we near the end of the season and look forward to the early sprint contests in 2014/15.
