Shocking Weight Causes Drift in Cup Markets

Sept. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Last year's Melbourne Cup winner Shocking faces a huge task to repeat his win after being allocated 57 kgs in this year's race. That's a whopping 6kgs more than he carried to victory last year and Betstar's Alan Eskander had no hesitation in winding out the five-year-old's price following today's release of the weights.

"Greg Carpenter (RVL's Chief Handicapper) certainly hasn't missed him. Given they're all saying this year's race is going to have plenty of depth, a 6 kg rise is a lot in anyone's language. Overall, today's release of the weights had little impact on our existing market but Shocking has lost his spot as equal favourite with So You Think," Eskander said.

The other noteworthy market moves following today's release were for last year's Metropolitan Handicap winner Speed Gifted and Dermot Weld's entry Rite of Passage.

"Speed Gifted has been given 53.5kgs in the Caulfield Cup, which should make it a lot easier for him to get a start than in 2009, and we'll get a better idea of how he's going after Saturday's Makybe Diva Stakes but we've brought him in from $41 to $34.  

I'm also very wary of Dermot Weld's horse, Rite of Passage. He is a very good horse, having won seven of his ten starts and I know Dermot is very keen to have a big crack at the 150th Cup. With 57kgs, I think they've virtually given him an invitation to run as he's never carried so little weight in his career so we've wound him in to $26," said Eskander


BETSTAR MARKET MOVES FOLLOWING WEIGHTS ANNOUNCEMENT

Caulfield Cup
Shocking $26 out to $34
So You Think $13 out to $15
Speed Gifted $41 into $34

Melbourne Cup
Shocking $13 out to $15
Rite of Passage $34 into $26

To view the full market for the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup visit http://www.betstar.com.au/

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