On Sat­ur­day, the Mod­i­fied Bench­mark Hand­i­cap for three-year-olds and over hors­es rat­ed 90-70 can be seen as the re-run of the 2022 Gold Cup. Cham­pi­on train­er John O’Brien has five hors­es slat­ed to race in the 1,750 me­tres event which has at­tract­ed ten run­ners. He sends out the Gold Cup win­ner Crown Prince, which out­bat­tled Just Ex­hale in the last edi­tion of the race, to win by a neck. How­ev­er, O’Brien has put up win­ning rid­er Ki­mal San­to once again and he will again be ex­pect­ed to oblige for the own­er, the Raro­ma Sta­bles.

The sec­ond-place fin­ish­er Just Ex­hale has been very con­sis­tent since that race and fin­ished sec­ond to So­ca Har­mo­ny in his last start on day one of the Ari­ma Race Club (ARC) rac­ing sea­son on Jan­u­ary 28. Train­er Ter­rance Thomas thinks high­ly of Just Ex­hale and ex­pects his im­prov­ing horse to con­tin­ue get­ting bet­ter. He is well-weight­ed at 46.5 ki­los and will have the as­sis­tance of Ridge Bal­go­b­in.

So­ca Har­mo­ny won the Mid­sum­mer Clas­sic and Der­by eas­i­ly last sea­son and looked like­ly to win the Gold Cup but dis­ap­point­ed and fin­ished a well-beat­en third. On Sat­ur­day, she will at­tempt to do bet­ter with cham­pi­on jock­ey Bri­an Boodram­s­ing back in the sad­dle. She made the 1-2 favourite for her start on the first day of rac­ing for the year and what a per­for­mance she dis­played. Trav­el­ling well, she eased to the front go­ing to the 500m mark­er and eas­i­ly pulled clear of her ri­vals. Just Ex­hale will now re­ceive four ki­los from So­ca Har­mo­ny.

Wise Guy has not won a race since be­fore COVID-19 struck. How­ev­er, in 2020, he won the Triple Crown with ap­pren­tice Ki­mal San­to astride. This O’Brien-trained run­ner has done lit­tle to en­cour­age pun­ters to put on their hard-earned mon­ey. In the past two months, he has be­gun to show signs of re­new­al and he could give Dil­lon Khelawan a good run. But, he car­ries top-weight in the event with 57 ki­los.

O’Brien’s next run­ner in this event is Stroke of Luck which won the Der­by in 2021. He has shown that he is a very good horse and though he does not get the races to suit him he is ex­pect­ed to run a big race on Sat­ur­day. Omar Mo­hammed will be aboard Stroke of Luck and he has been gal­lop­ing well late­ly, so a big run is ex­pect­ed.

The fi­nal en­trant from the cham­pi­on train­er’s quin­tet is So­ca Sym­pho­ny, which will be rid­den by Nela Mo­hammed. This is a very good horse, who has been sprint­ing. He has speed and must not be al­lowed an un­con­test­ed lead. How­ev­er, her im­post of 52.5 ki­los gives her a sneak, if the race is run to suit.

Desert Dancer, Pawan Pu­tra, News Flash and Leonar­do An­gel all have out­side chances to get on the board, how­ev­er, it will take some do­ing for any of the quar­tet to win this race.

From the look of this event, it could be a close call be­tween the Gold Cup Win­ner, Crown Prince, run­ner-up, Just Ex­hale and So­ca Har­mo­ny, whose Gold Cup run, is best for­got­ten. One thing is cer­tain, O’Brien will win this event.

R6: 4.25 PM - MOD­I­FIED BENCH­MARK HAND­I­CAP 3 YO AND OVER HORS­ES RAT­ED 90-70 - 1750M - $17,710

087*1*Desert Dancer*C Ram­baran/K Raza­ck*47*Out­sider (33/1)

626*2*Pawan Pu­tra*M Lutch­man/R Jadoo*50*Place chance(25-1)

151*3*Crown Prince*J O’Brien/K San­to*51*Can Take this (6/5)

209*4*News Flash*K Lu­cas/A Poon*53*Not To­day (66/1)

322*5*Just Ex­hale*T Thomas/R Bal­go­b­in*46.5*Big Shout (4-1)

431*6*So­ca Har­mo­ny*J O’Brien/B Boodram­s­ing*48.5*Can win (1-1)

456*7*Stroke Of Luck*J O’Brien/O Mo­hammed*56.5*Can sur­prise (16/1)

066*8*Leonar­do An­gel*T Thomas/D Ro­dri­go*45.5*Out­sider (40/1)

685*9*Wise Guy*J O’Brien/D Khelawan*57*Can sur­prise (12/1)

685*10*So­ca Sym­pho­ny*J O’Brien/N Mo­hammed*52.5*Needs Short­er (66/1)