Palentino and Hauraki are fighting out favouritism for the TAB Epsom this Saturday at Randwick. Little was separating the pair in betting before this morning’s barrier draw at Randwick and after drawing 9 and 10 respectively, they now head the market at $5.50 each.
Happy Clapper (barrier one) and McCreery (four) are joint second picks at $7 respectively.
Fabrizio, one of the key movers after today's draw, is $11 into $9.50 off the back of coming up with gate six for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and is the only other runner in single figures with the rest headed by Mackintosh and Le Romain at $11.
In the Metropolitan, the draw this morning didn’t seem to affect any of the prices with Antonio Giuseppe (barrier five) still top of the betting charts at $4.60 in front of Sir John Hawkwood (six)and Sacred Master (12) who are both at $6.
Allergic, one of two runners for Godolphin, is next pick in the market at $8 while stablemate Magic Hurricane is considered an $11 chance.
Grand Marshal, the 2015 Sydney Cup winner, firmed up slightly from $26-$21 after drawing gate one.
“It’s a very open race with $5.50 the field,” says TAB’s Glenn Munsie. “The two favourites drew next to each other so off the back of that we didn’t see any real significant moves at the top of the market. We then had the next few in the market all draw favourably so that explains why it is pretty open.
“Someone did have $300 on Fabrizio at $11 while the draw was going on and after that horse came up with six, the boys firmed it up slightly to $9.50.
“The Metropolitan didn’t have any real changes to it simply because the favourites all drew near enough to each other.”