The best two fancied fillies in Australasian Oaks 2018 betting have drawn opposite ends of the field for Saturday’s Group 1 staying race at Morphettville Racecourse.
Aloisia chases a second Group 1 win in Saturday’s Australasian Oaks 2018 at Morphettville Racecourse. Photo: Ultimate Racing Photos.
The key act on Robert Sangster Stakes Day at the first major meeting of the Adelaide Autumn Racing Carnival, this year’s Group 1 $500,000 Schweppes Australasian Oaks (2000m) features a final field of 15 three-year-old fillies.
It is a close affair in the updated Australasian Oaks odds online at Ladbrokes.com.au with four single-figure hopefuls including Savacool ($5) and Sopressa ($5.50) battling for favouritism.
The top two fancies had opposite luck in the Australasian Oaks barrier draw with Chris Waller’s last start Caulfield winner Savacool in barrier 11 and the Darren Weir-trained Sopressa drawn the rails again.
Sydney-based Waller of Winx fame won last year’s race with Egg Tart (2017) and is back in 2018 with two chances of going back-to-back in the Australasian Oaks as a trainer for the first time since Lee Freedman back in 1991-92.
Savacool is considered his best hope despite this being her first foray into black-type racing.
The bookies however are taking no chances with the up-and-coming bay.
She is ed in the Australasian Oaks field by in-form stablemate Velocita in gate three, a $17 outsider in betting after a lead-up third over the Randwick mile from ANZAC Day.
The big danger to Savacool, Sopressa is a nicely-bred daughter of So You Think and one of three in the set weights feature for Victorian Weir.
Weir won the race in 2014 with May’s Dream and Sopressa ran the ideal lead-up for the stable this year winning the Group 3 Auraria Stakes (1800m) at the Morphettville track by over four lengths.
The Auraria Stakes, also known as the Schweppervescence Stakes, has produced three Australasian Schweppes Oaks winners since 2012 and Sopressa is out to do the double in 2018.
She had the inside run that day and gets the same on the weekend, Harry Coffey retaining the ride on the filly who looks more than capable of going up to 2000m after the huge winning margin last time out.
Weir’s other two Australasian Oaks fillies in 2018 are the widely-drawn Think Bleue ($6.50) chasing her third win on the trot and his longer-priced daughter of Hard Spun Pleasuring ($14) coming off an Auraria Stakes fourth.
Think Bleue may have the outside barrier to overcome (15 of 15), but the flying So You Think filly has won four of her past five starts and is the early market mover for the weekend.
She took out Moonee Valley’s Group 3 Alexandra Stakes (1600m) two back before a narrow Flemington win on April 25 over 1720m.
Rounding out the single figure hopes in Schweppes Oaks betting at $7 is the Ciaron Maher-trained Group 1 winner Aloisia.
The Azamour filly is best known for her Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) win over the Caulfield mile last October, which led into a three and a half-length win over the boys in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Vase (2040m).
She hasn’t won again since, but ran a nice first-up third in the Group 1 Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) and will appreciate coming back to that distance after her midfield seventh in the Group 1 ATC Oaks (2400m) last start.
Check out the full Australasian Oaks 2018 field and odds below, betting open now through Ladbrokes.com.au.
