Damian Browne gives his Doomben Cup mount Angel Of Mercy a good chance to turn the tables on Streama in the Group 1 weight for age Winter Carnival feature at Doomben on Saturday.
Angel Of Mercy will be looking for a dry track for the Doomben Cup. Photo by Daniel Costello.
The Gerald Ryan trained Angel Of Mercy was beaten six and a half lengths when eighth to Streama in the Group 2 $358,000 Wimmers Soft Drinks A. D. Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast on May 3 on a heavy track.
But the prospect of a better racing surface gives Browne that extra confidence heading into Saturday’s Group 1 $500,000 Titan Energy Services Doomben Cup (2000m).
“Group 1 company is a query, but coming into the race (in the Hollindale) she got up underneath Streama and I thought we were going better than her, but then she hit a wet patch and just didn’t come out the other side,” Browne told The Courier-Mail.
“If she were to reproduce what she did in her Eagle Farm win two starts back, she’s a knockout hope.”
At her previous start Angel Of Mercy scored a comfortable win as an odds on favourite in the Listed $80,000 Winning Edge Trophies Members’ Handicap (1600m) at Eagle Farm on April 19 on a good track.
The Doomben track is currently rated a Dead 4 and possibly won’t get any better with showers forecast for the Brisbane area for Friday and Saturday.
Angel Of Mercy has pleased trained Gerald Ryan since her Gold Coast run and an impressive gallop at Doomben on Tuesday morning convinced the top Sydney trainer to pay the late entry fee of $11,550 after the stable missed the first acceptance deadline last week.
“She is going to the broodmare sales at the end of the month and I missed the acceptances for the race a week ago, but we had the chance to pay a late acceptance fee into it and we waited until she worked on Tuesday morning,” Ryan said.
“She worked very, very well on Tuesday morning and the track was drying out, so we thought that we would have a crack.
“She worked solid over five furlongs with Dothraki and Dothraki is a very good worker.”
Angel Of Mercy is marked as one of the outsiders of the Doomben Cup field at $21 with Ladbrokes.com.au with Streama the ruling favourite at $4.20.
Leebaz from the Team Hawkes stable is challenging for favouritism at $4.40 following his win in the Group 3 $150,000 Panthers Hawkesbury Gold Cup (1600m) at Hawkesbury May 3 while Warrnambool Cup winner Akzar ($4.80) and the Chris Waller trained Junoob ($5) are also well up in the market order.
Hollindale Stakes runner up Mr O’Ceirin is a $9 chance just ahead of Junoob’s stablemate Moriarty at $11 and Slow Pace at $15 while the Peter Moody pair of Floria ($26) and Fat Al ($61) are the other outsiders of the field.
