Capitalist $1.40 to break Golden Slipper hoodoo
2016 Golden Slipper winner Capitalist is odds-on for this Saturday’s Missile Stakes, but it will have to break a three-year hoodoo to prevail.
The last three winners of the Golden Slipper – Vancouver, Mossfun and Overreach – have all failed to win a race since taking out the world’s richest two-year-old race, but bookmakers are predicting Capitalist won’t make it four straight.
The Peter and Paul Snowden-trained colt is $1.45 with Sportsbet.com.au to win the $175,000 Group 2 Missile Stakes and after an impressive trial performance and a weight-for-age allotment of only 51.5kg, it should be very tough to beat come Saturday.
“He’s obviously got to go do it and you hope things go your way, but he’s a highly rated early season three-year-old and if he has the right luck he’s going to be very hard to toss with 51.5kg on his back,” jockey Kerrin McEvoy said.
“There’s every chance he might bob up in another weight-for-age race in Melbourne and he will have a light weight again.”
Capitalist will be the first three-year-old to contest the Missile Stakes since Snippetson and Dance Hero ran first and second in 2005, but the change in scheduling means both runners were only a few days away from turning four, whereas Capitalist has been only three for less than a week.
McEvoy was pleased with how it ran at the trials and believes his horse is in good shape.
“I gave him a good squeeze in the last furlong without going bananas,” McEvoy said. “I felt my horse would improve off that trial – as you would expect – going into his fresh run. Everything points to the horse being in nice shape.”
2016 Missile Stakes market
Capitalist is the raging hot favourite at $1.45 which is largely due to the weight-for-age scale being heavily in its favour.
Proven runner Rebel Dane has been supported on the second line of betting, but Sportsbet’s Christian Jantzen believes the favourite will be hard to beat on its way to bigger races this spring.
“In recent year, Golden Slipper winners have struggled in their three-year-old campaigns, but Capitalist looks set to break the mould. He’s trialled strongly and everything points to him winning on Saturday and setting himself up for a stellar spring,” Jantzen said.
Capitalist – $1.45 at Sportsbet.com.au
Rebel Dane – $4.80
Generalife – $9
Big Money – $11
Mount Nebo – $34
Tycoon Tara – $34
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – $41