Atlantic Jewel is set to continue her successful comeback and keep her unbeaten record intact when she lines up for her ninth win in the Group 2 $220,000 Top Cut Stocks Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
Atlantic Jewel is set for another easy win at Moonee Valley. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Atlantic Jewel has drawn perfectly at barrier two in the eight horse weight for age field restricted to mares and Michael Rodd should have no trouble positioning her wherever he likes in the run.
The $132,000 first prizemoney looks easy pickings for the multiple Group 1 winner who returned from a sixteen months absence due to injury to record a stunning win in the Group 1 $350,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 31.
The only thing worrying trainer Mark Kavanagh is the ‘second up syndrome’ but there appears to be little else to trouble the unbeaten Fastnet Rock mare.
“In the back of my mind after spending so much work nursing a horse back from a spell and an injury that had not raced in 70 weeks there is always the possibility and I know it may be a little old fashioned, but there’s these things call second up syndromes,” Kavanagh told Racing Network.
“If there was ever going to be a second up syndrome you would think it would be after 70 weeks.
“With that in mind we go towards a mare’s race where she is rated 19 or 20 above any other horse.”
Kavanagh’s stable star is facing a mediocre field to say the least with last year’s Stocks Stakes winner Oasis Bloom with a rating of 98 and the Mick Price trained Fibrillation on a rating of 97 the closet in the rankings to Atlantic Jewel who has a rating of 117.
Oasis Bloom, who was a narrow winner over Spirit Song last year, has failed to run a place at two runs from a spell in the Group 3 $150,000 K S Enviromental Cockram Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on August 17 and the Group 2 $220,000 Let’s Elope Stakes (1400m) at Flemington last Saturday.
While Fibrillation, a Group 3 winner and Group 1 placegetter, produced her best result for a long time with a second to Bec Said No Credit in a 1400m Mares race at Caulfield on August 31.
The improving Bec Said No Credit made it three wins in a row at Caulfield coming out of restricted grade and would have to raise the bar dramatically to match it with Atlantic Jewel, a three times Group 1 winner.
Of the rest of the field Oriental Ruby is the best performed a with a Group 3 placing when third two starts back in the Cockram Stakes.
Atlantic Jewel is currently a very short priced $2.50 favourite for the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 26 with second pick Puissance De Lune easing to $9 after going down to Foreteller in the Group 1 $350,000 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington last Saturday.
