Dean’s Crystal Ball -The Hobartville Stakes

Crystal Ball – Future Plays

The Hobartville Stakes: Autumn Boy $3.60 (Various Bookies)

How isn’t Autumn Boy favourite in this All-In market?

He is the class G1 winner of the field and couldn’t have been more impressive in his 1 x 900m and 1 x 1000m trials. The latest was clearly the pick as he trucked up towards the inside rail, looking full of running as he toyed with his rivals. Pleasing through the line and looks perfectly set up to run a sharp fresh race over the 1400m.

He should also gain the services of James McDonald in the saddle. This is key.

The Waller camp is renowned for their historical pattern with Group races. He trained both Press Statement (2016) and The Autumn Sun (2019) to G1 Caulfield Guineas wins before getting both horses to win the G2 Hobartville Stakes first-up in the Autumn as 3YOs – he’ll look to make it 3/3 with the exact same set-up for Autumn Boy.

The fourth point I want to make is his figures and form. He produced a WFA rating of 100.5 in the Ming Dynasty (1400m) first-up last prep when beaten by Sixties – a huge run against the bias that day. He then produced a 100.0 figure in the G1 Caulfield Guineas. Those two figures haven’t been achieved by any of his rivals here.

I think he’ll start favourite come Saturday and be winning the Hobartville before going on to win the Randwick Guineas and hopefully the Doncaster.