Racing: Aussies bound to ignore NZ filly

There was much to like about Bounding's win in the Railway Stakes and she should prove a worthy rival for her foes today. Photo / Natalie Slade

You shouldn't stick your hand in a pit bull's mouth and you shouldn't back a New Zealand sprinter to beat the Australians.

The first of those clearly makes sense and so too, usually, does the second.

But there could be an exception to that when Matamata filly Bounding takes on the Australian 3-year-old sprinters in today's A$500,000 Royal Sovereign Stakes at Randwick.

At $6, Bounding is going to surprise an awful lot of people. She is exceptional and the opposition today has a slight second-tier ring to it.

Bounding has not raced on a track as wet as she will strike today, but you can't forget her winning run on rain-affected footing in the group one Railway at Ellerslie last New Year's Day, when she raced three widths away from the rail with horses inside her - a suicide spot - before getting away to win.

She is by high-class sire Lonhro, the majority of whose stock handle wet ground well.

The outside No 12 barrier looks ugly, but Bounding has a remarkable temperament and will relax wherever Mark du Plessis places her in running. She has everything you can ask of a good filly, temperament, high speed and plenty of fight in the closing stages.

Mark Oulaghan is used to sending his horses out on freezing cold days at Trentham and Riccarton to face fences in their races and then he's used to collecting the money.

The weather will be different in Sydney today and the money will be a whole lot more in the A$1 million Sydney Cup.

Of the rest, nothing will have changed - Oulaghan will have his horse, in this case Who Shot Thebarman, extremely fit and reserves of stamina will need to be found. No problem.

Who Shot Thebarman has a remarkable record - six wins from just nine starts. First-time rider James McDonald is concerned about that bare nine starts.

"He's terribly new," said McDonald when he jumped on the New Zealand stayer's back for the first time midweek. "But doesn't he give you a feel?"

If the Auckland Cup winner is beaten this afternoon it's highly unlikely to be because of inexperience. He's a 5-year-old, he's bred from strong stock and under Oulaghan he will have done plenty of work behind the scenes.

If you can't, as a rule, back our sprinters in Australia, you can certainly be on our stayers when they venture across the Ditch.

The one factor which attracts you to Who Shot Thebarman is that he has already won over 3200m in the Auckland Cup last start and you just know he'll be running on at the business end.

Many of these horses have not tried 3200m and most of them won't cope with it at his level.

It's in that area alone that Who Shot Thebarman will get the better of the opposition.

What a day James McDonald could possibly have - Rising Romance in the Oaks, It's A Dundeel in the QE11 and Who Shot Thebarman in the Sydney Cup - A$5 million in stakemoney.

You'd probably take the odds to sticking your hand in a pit bull's mouth for that level of opportunity.