A good barrier draw will help the Team Snowden trained Bondi turn the tide in the Group 1 $500,000 Moet & Chandon Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday.
ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner El Dorado Dreaming, above, will line up in the 2018 Champagne Stakes at Randick. Photo by Steve Hart.
Bondi was out of luck from a wide drew last start when seventh to the roughie El Dorado Dreaming in the Group 1 $1m ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on day one of The Championships two weeks ago but co-trainer Peter Snowden is giving the Snitzel colt a great chance to make amends from barrier two in the thirteen horse field.
“He has been round about the mark but I think that a good draw is a big plus for him,” Peter Snowden told Sky Racing’s Racing HQ.
“So he is definitely not without a good chance there tomorrow.”
“He has been dogged with bad gates at a lot of his starts and certainly gets his chance tomorrow.”
“I thought his run in the Sires was excellent.”
Melbourne based jockey Mark Zahra is back aboard Bondi in the Champagne Stakes and after riding the colt in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes told the Snowden Racing Team of Peter and Paul that he had no luck from the wide gate and the run was better than it looked.
“Mark Zahra is riding him tomorrow and he rode him the other day and he said he was jumping for joy when he saw the draw. He said the run was a lot better than what it looked,” Peter Snowden said.
“He did a lot of work for a long way early in that race the other day and he was still very strong through the line.”
Snowden was happy with the way Bondi finished off the 1400m of the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes and along with Zahra is looking forward to him tackling the 1600m for the first time.
“Going to the mile which is a first for a lot of them, but he (Zahra) was quietly confident from that good draw he might get some favours in the run,” Snowden said.
Snowden admits that Bondi has had a long tough preparation but added that he continues to please in the stable and his work has been good.
“He is fairly tough. He has had an arduous two year old preparation but he keeps putting his hand up for more and he looks in great order and his work has been spot on through the week,” Snowden said.
“He has probably been a shandy short. His first run was a great run in Sydney. I thought his Magic Millions run was good, he got severely hampered when he got a big backlash in the run to the first turn, but all his other runs in Sydney have been solid.”
Bondi is marked at the healthy double figures odds at $12 for the Champagne Stakes in a wide betting race that sees five runners under the $10 mark with Ladbrokes.com.au
There has been plenty of support for the Team Hawkes trained Outrageous who has firmed into to be the $4.80 favourite on race eve ahead of Not A Single Cent at $5.50, Seabrook at $6.50, Long Leaf at $7.50 and El Dorado Dreaming at $9.
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