Bart Sinclair's Doomben Preview - Sat 22 Jan, 2022

 
Gold Coast four-year-old Tamilaide is a horse many punters have trouble assessing.

Tamilaide has started favorite in seven of his 10 starts to date – and failed to deliver the goods five times. But he never runs badly.

He will again be at short odds in the BRC Membership Plus Class 3 over 1600m at Doomben on Saturday.

Tamilaide’s only unplaced run was his last start sixth in the weight-for-age The Wave over 1800 metres at the Gold Coast a fortnight ago.

As his normal racing pattern Tamilaide was at the tail of the field of 13 – and a dozen lengths from the leaders – about 600 metres after the jump. He made up solid ground late to be beaten 4.7 lengths.

Under the wfa conditions Tamilaide carried 58.5kg. Now he is back to a Class 3 and has 59kg, just a half kilo more. It’s meagre weight lift considering the massive class drop.

One word of warning. There does not appear a lot of early pace in his opposition.

To balance the possible lack of tempo the rain affected conditions play in his favour. He has been placed four of his five runs on soft ground – The Wave was the exception – and won at both attempts in heavy conditions.

Ben Thompson who won the Grafton Guineas on Tamilaide last July and was also the rider in the Wave has a good understanding of the gelding’s racing manners.

The two three-year-old sprints – races five and six – feature some interesting runners.

In the colts and gelding race the Chris Waller-trained Kipsbay will be trying to break his Maiden status. He raced ungenerously in stages when runner-up at Canterbury last start but was more tractable when winning a subsequent barrier trial.

Waller has made two interesting gear changes for Kipsbay since the Canterbury run. A lugging bit has been removed and a Norton bit added.

In the fillies’ division Amity Gal will start at short odds on the back of some very impressive trial performances and a comfortable debut win at the Sunshine Coast over 1000 metres on soft ground on January 2.