The in-form King Krovanh looks set to hand Peter Moody an early winner at Caulfield this afternoon.
Photo by Racing and Sports
The three-year-old son of Fastnet Rock lines up against a fairly inexperienced lot in the Legatee Ron Foskett Benchmark 68 Handicap (1800m), looking to build on his impressive maiden win two starts back.
That came at Cranbourne over 1200m where he did plenty wrong, travelled wide most the trip with no cover and still mustered a powerful finishing burst to swamp the lot of them.
Last start he stepped up to Saturday metropolitan grade at this track and was only just edged out of second spot by Tony Vasil’s Under The Leaner.
The pair were more than three lengths adrift of King Krovanh’s handy stablemate Lampedusa but there was a further two lengths back to the fourth horse in that race.
King Krovanh’s run in that race netted a weight-adjusted Timeform figure of 70, a three-pound improvement on his maiden salute.
He’s still a little behind where he was rating as a two-year-old behind the likes of Elite Elle, but third-up today he should be close to peaking and the jump to 1800m looks ideal.
Luke Nolen jumps back in the saddle and he only carries 58kg against this lot which looks a little generous given the ability he’s displayed so far. This is a much easier assignment than the Benchmark 78 Handicap (1440m) he ran in 11 days ago.
He’s drawn the rail so Nolen should be able to cover him right up today and save plenty of juice for the straight. Getting held up in traffic shouldn’t be an issue in this small field, and if he can run up to his best form King Krovanh should do away with this lot.
Robert Smerdon gelding Cooldini looks the biggest danger after impressively breaking his maiden last start at Bendigo.
He wound up slowly down the straight and proved too good in the end pulling away from them over a mile.
That produced a weight-adjusted Timeform rating of 72, and he looks capable of improving that up to this journey.
The experienced Dwayne Dunn takes the ride and expect him to settle midfield from gate five.
He’ll be winding up late on and should give King Krovanh something to beat.
Digitalism is another recent maiden winner who should be somewhere in the mix today.
He won at Ballarat resuming 17 days ago with the blinkers off first time and can improve today second-up.
The John Sadler-trained gelding will likely push forward and can dictate terms if he gets to the front. If he pinches a break he’ll be tough to reel in.
David Hayes’ Abdaan rates as the next best but he’s been up for a while now and might not quite have the dash of the top few.
