Picture: Salty Dingo
The Philip Stokes educated Neodium can be seeking to declare a slice of Birdsville Cup racing historical past by turning into solely the fourth horse to win back-to-back editions of the Cup after Monee Lane, Snedden, and Brashleigh when he traces up for large Birdsville function race on Saturday.
Monee Lane was the final to attain that feat successful in 2005 and 2006. It’s a must to return an additional ten years to search out Snedden’s double in 1995 and 1996, and one other twelve years to Brashleigh’s double success in 1982 and 1983 … statistics which emphasise simply how uncommon back-to-back victories are within the race, notably on condition that the Cup has been contested since 1882.
Amongst Neodium’s eleven rivals, one other runner, the Philip Cole educated Saccharo, may also be making an attempt to land a second Birdsville Cup, having taken out the race in 2022.
By the use of instance of the entire taking part coach’s dedication to the Birdsville trigger, Neodium will make the 1180km journey from Adelaide to be at Birdsville whereas Cole will journey Saccharo roughly 2280km from his Darwin base.
Neodium is at the moment the ruling race favorite, solely being narrowly forward of the Clinton Austin educated I Am Good At This within the betting, with the Ron Stokes educated Trumpsta, Neodium’s travelling companion, on the third line of betting. Saccharo is at the moment an $18 probability with bookmakers.
Senior riders Justin Potter and Chris Whiteley will experience Neodium and I Am Good At This respectively, whereas at least six out of the twelve Cup runners can be ridden by apprentices, with the race possible to supply a memorable expertise for all of those younger riders concerned.
For the report, Gary Geran was the final rider to attain back-to-back wins within the Birdsville Cup, a report that may nonetheless be intact after Saturday as Emily Finnegan, who partnered Neodium to victory in 2023, just isn’t concerned this yr.
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