3 minute read
Waterhouse-Bott trained gelding drawn the box seat to lead cup field.
It was a mixed bag for the interstate runners at Wednesday's official Ladbrokes Hobart Cup barrier draw with two of the four invaders drawing favourable gates while the other two copped awkward draws in the Group 3 event over 2400 metres.
The Annabel Neasham-trained Spirit Ridge, who will carry top weight in the cup (59kg), will start from a suitable barrier four and the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott-trained Military Mission drew ideally in gate two.
But Ain'Tnodeeldun (10) from the Anthony and Sam Freedman yard and the Ben and JD Hayes-trained Dark Dream (seven) must contend with sticky gates.
Two of the best local hopes Glass Warrior (1) and Swoop Dog (9) from the John Blacker stable at Longford also are not well drawn, but one of the local outsiders Travelling Gigolo from the powerful Scott Brunton stable could not have drawn better in gate five.
Blacker was unable to attend the barrier draw and asked two racing administrators to draw the barriers but both let him down as he told Glass Warrior's drawer to pick anything but gate one as his mare will end up at the rear of the field after 400 metres.
Swoop Dog is not well served with gate nine but it is good enough not to bother his rider Siggy Carr who has been able to deal with tricky gates in the past.
One of the outsiders, Travelling Gigolo from the Scott Brunton stable, fared well with gate five, with one of the gelding's part-owners Meaghan Sommerville selecting the right miniature cup under which all the barrier numbers resided at the draw.
When markets are framed Travelling Gigolo will be one of the outsiders, but his syndicate of faithful owners will no doubt throw their weight and money behind the gelding that has the task of delivering his owners' pipedream of winning a Hobart Cup.
The Hobart Cup is race eight on the card of nine on Sunday and is scheduled to start at 4.50pm.
