Kiwi jockey Kelly McCulloch is super confident that top weight Benzini will ‘try his heart out’ again when he takes on a tough field of stayers in Saturday’s Listed $175,000 The Pump House Caloundra Cup (2400m) at the Sunshine Coast.
Supply And Demand, above, is one of the main chances in the Caloundra Cup at the Sunshine Coast. Photo by Steve Hart.
McCulloch admits that she was taken by surprise when the heavily backed Self Sense raced away in the straight to score a six and three quarter lengths win over Benzini in the Listed $175,000 Channel 7 Ipswich Cup (2150m) at Ipswich on June 17.
The Adrian and Harry Bull trained stayer drops half a kilo to 59.5kg and he meets Self Sense 2.5kg better at the weights and McCulloch is looking forward to the rematch.
“Benzini’s such a genuine horse and he’ll try his heart out again,” McCulloch told the New Zealand Racing Desk.
“The winner (Self Sense) was pretty dominant, but his run was good on a track that he wasn’t ideally suited to and he had that big weight.”
“He has to carry a big weight again but at least he’s down half a kilo this time and the other horse goes up a couple of kilos. The winner caught me a bit by surprise – he wasn’t a horse I had put in my top two dangers – so hopefully he might have already had his day.”
McCulloch can see the David Brideoake trained Self Sense as one of the hardest to beat in the Caloundra Cup along with the in-form Supply And Demand from the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable.
“Self Sense has to rate again and Gai (Waterhouse) has one in there (Supply And Demand) that has won his last two and he looks promising,” McCulloch said.
Benzini also has to overcome a wide barrier after drawing gate eleven in the twelve horse Caloundra Cup field.
Ipswich Cup winning jockey Michael Cahill sticks with Self Sense who drew barrier eight while Supply And Demand will jump from nine with Josh Parr replacing apprentice Rachel King.
Early Caloundra Cup betting at Ladbrokes.com.au on Thursday has Self Sense as the $3.10 favourite just ahead of Supply And Demand at $3.30 and the Darren Weir trained Neverland at $4.40 while Benzini is at the good odds of $7.50.
