News

Wide draw is fine for All Silent in Doncaster

14th Apr 2009

Herald Sun - Ray Thomas - Wednesday, 15 April 2009

TRAINER Grahame Begg remained relaxed and confident despite race favourite All Silent being drawn to start from barrier 16 in the $2 million Emirates Doncaster Mile at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

"I prefer to be drawn out a bit in these big Randwick miles," Begg said at yesterday's all-important Doncaster barrier draw.

"You can miss a lot of trouble (out wide) because there will be good pressure on for the lead in the early part of the race.

"I don't think it is a bad draw because he can come into the race when he wants to."

All Silent is striving to become the first horse since Catalan Opening (1998) to complete the Emirates Stakes-Doncaster Mile double. Coincidentally, Catalan Opening also came out of gate 16 in his Doncaster win.

There were 19 final acceptors for the Doncaster, including nine individual Group One winners. The main features of the barrier draw included:

• TRIPLE Honour's attempt to win successive Doncasters was given a boost when he drew barrier one;

• OUTSTANDING three-year-old Whobegotyou must start from the outside of the field in gate 19;

• RANDWICK mile specialist Theseo starts from barrier two; and

• HOT Danish moved into outright second favouritism after being allocated barrier seven;

The draw caused only minimal changes to Doncaster betting with All Silent easing from $4.60 to $5.50 but retaining TAB Fixed Odds favouritism ahead of Hot Danish ($7).

Whobegotyou and Vision And Power are the only other Doncaster runners under double-figure odds and are on the third line of betting at $9.

Begg believes All Silent will get the chance to emulate his half-sister Private Steer, who won the Doncaster in 2004, provided his galloper gets to race on a reasonable track on Saturday.

"I think All Silent's best form is on top of the ground and the forecast for the next few days is for drying weather, so hopefully the track will improve," Begg said.