Saturday 11th April 2020

2019 Sydney Cup

The Sydney Cup is set to take centre stage at Randwick this Saturday and I’m taking a look at who is the most likely to come on top and take the Grade 1 Handicap down under. Heading affairs is a UK raider which comes in the form of Young Rascal for William Haggas, who currently trades as the general 11/8 market leader for the race. He was last seen when taking a Group 3 contest at Rosehill last month when getting the better of the well-fancied favourite in the form of Mugatoo by a half-length, out staying him at the finish.

Mustajeer lines up in opposition, he won the Ebor at York last year when trained in Ireland by Ger Lyons and has since moved down under and is now trained by Kris Lees. The seven-year-old has had five starts for his new stable, winning once in Listed company at Rosehill back in February. He was well beaten when tried in the Melbourne Cup.

Raheen House is also set to take his place here, he was also a decent performer when trained in the UK, formerly by Brian Meehan & William Haggas. He actually got the better of Enable in his earlier days and also won the Group 3 Bahrain Trophy. Now trained by Kris Lees as well he finally got his head in front down under after four outings, when winning a Group 2 contest earlier this month. He was however, well beaten by Young Rascal on his penultimate outing.

Young Rascal winning the Manion Cup at Rosehill in March

Verdict:

This looks to reolve around the top three in the betting as the rest of the field seemingly have a lot to find in the ratings. Mustajeer and Raheen House were both rated in the 110’s in the UK and are both more than useful performers who should be on the premises here. However, this looks all about YOUNG RASCAL for me who is a personal favourite of mine on the level. He was arguably a class above his two main rivals when trained in the UK and he only enhanced that reputation further with a solid win last time. I think he’ll step up again from that and it will take a big performance to get the better of him here.

YOUNG RASCAL @ 11/8