THE PETLEY REPORT: PUNTERS LEFT WITH ONLY ONE MORE WEEK TO ASSESS MAGIC MILLIONS CONTENDERS

By Jack Petley | Sunday, January 10, 2021

That classy filly She's All Class holds onto favouritism for next Saturday’s Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic at the Gold Coast, but after the weekend of racing at the track there have been some substantial movers in the market.

She's All Class is a solid favourite at $4. Behind her that Bott-Waterhouse winning filly on the Gold Coast yesterday, for Glen Boss, Swift Witness, has gained her place in the field and has moved to $7 equal second favourite with Alpine Edge. And sitting on the next line at $9 is the Dabernig-Hayes colt Finance Tycoon, who had a great battle with Shaquero and gained the win in a tough, tough finish. David Hayes tried for many years but came up short. His son Ben looks to have a colt ready to be hard to beat.

And what about Shaquero? That was a super run being taken on in the lead by Rambeau for a good deal of the early journey and when that colt dropped away Finance Tycoon came onto the scene to challenge. But what I liked about Shaquero he did not quit. Feel Chris Waller has him right again. During the week the colt was at $16 in the market and even longer. But now hr is at $11 with Baby Wong, Ranch Hand and Miss Hipstar is at $13.

Glen Boss rated that win of the filly Swift Witness as " so impressive," but he won't be riding her next weekend as he has a prior booking for the Maher-Eustace filly Fake Love so the mount on Silent Witness has been taken by Brenton Avdulla, who like Hugh Bowman and James McDonald is at present quarantining so as to make the Gold Coast MM meeting. That filly raced right away from her rivals yesterday and Gai Waterhouse already has such a great record in the big one with five wins.

The Waterhouse/Bott stable was also successful with Yao Dash, that four-year-old gelding by Smart Missile, in the hands of Nash Rawiller in a 1300 metre event, and with that dashing win has been promoted to warm favourite for the MM Cup at $5, ahead of $6 Eleven Eleven, $7 Soxagain, $8 The Astrologist, $11 Discharged.

Nash Rawiller was in fine form at the Gold Coast also successful on Animate and it was his strength that gained the win for the Kris Lees trained four-year-old by Animal Kingdom.

And looking at the MM Guineas market that high class filly Isotope holds favouritism at $2, then 5 Away Game, 6 Forbidden Love, 15 Gotta Miss, 17 Apache Chase, Private Eye.

That Danny O'Brien trained galloper Paradee has firmed to favourite for the Subzero at $2.10 ahead of 4 Ballistic Boy, 8 Elaborate and Primitive.

There were some fine winning efforts at Royal Randwick including that game and narrow win by Pinnacle Prince, a tough win by the Mark Newnham stayer Spirit Ridge in the January Cup, giving the UK bred stayer a double in the Summer Cup and January Cup and that was an ever so confident ride by young Robbie Doolan who certainly has a very bright future ahead of him.

Mark Newnham will now ease his stayer for a short time and he already has his sights set on the Sydney autumn and a race like the Sydney Cup. And when he announced those plans the odds for the Sydney Cup were slashed.

Jason Collett had to use all his power to keep Pinnacle Prince a winner over that roughie Portuguese Tart, but Collett put the narrow win more to the rising star still being immature. "When he got to the front he started to star-gaze, look around, he was almost waiting for the other horses." And the Kiwi added, “he has a big future." His trainer is now saying he will ease him and then have him back for better races in the autumn.

Two other impressive winners the Les Bridge trained All Time Legend and the Bjorn Baker trained Malkovich. The son of Zoustar, All Time Legend, has now been successful five times from seven starts and his wonderful trainer, Les Bridge, says there is much ahead for the four-year-old." He has a lot of talent," said Bridge. And I noted that second place by Subedar back from a long spell away from racing. Top effort.

Malkovich showed that Bjorn Baker has a very promising sprinter on his hands when he had too much pace and class for his rivals ably rated in front, once he reached there, by Rachael King. The $1m Inglis Sprint is on the agenda for the Darby racing syndicated galloper and I feel that he is a sprinter able to reach the best class. This was only his 8th start and his fourth win.

Jason Collett won for Chris Waller on Betcha Flying and Waller also won with Zing, by Zoustar, who Waller trained for big wins.

In Victoria, Michael Walker rode a well-timed race to gain success on Never Again in the Chester Manifold Stakes and those were impressive wins by Abseiler and Zesty Belle.

In NZ, Callsign Cav won at Awapuni under a big weight and is certainly a high class galloper for John Bary and Beauden gave his rivals a galloping lesson in the Marton Cup beating Grand Bouquet.

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