Racing: Wide barriers dent feature hopes

Saint Emilion, winning at Ellerslie last month, has a wide draw in Sunday's City of Auckland Cup. Photo / Getty Images

Leading chances in Railway and City of Auckland Cup hit by the luck of draw

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise - barrier draws are critical regardless of the race distance.

A couple of Waikato stables wandered into heart-attack territory yesterday when they saw the fields for Ellerslie on Sunday.

Ken and Bev Kelso's both skipped a beat when their $200,000 Sistema Railway runners Perfect Draw and Irish Moon drew barriers No13 and No15 respectively.

It was worse for Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman. Their hopes for the $200,000 Laser Plumbing Te Puke City of Auckland Cup, Saint Emilion and Lizzie L'Amour, came up with barriers No22 and No20.

Both of those Cup barriers will come in five places when the emergencies come out. And, it's an advantage that the 2400m start at Ellerslie is in a chute down the bottom of the home straight, allowing close to a 500m run to the first bend.

But worth remembering is that Lizzie L'Amour's stunning Waikato Cup win owed a lot to her inside barrier. She may well have won anyway - so easy was the victory - but Matt Cameron simply jumped the classy mare out and put her close up on the rail.

While St Emilion will probably go forward from his barrier, there will be few options for Lizzie L'Amour but to hook to the tail of the field. Back runners are at the mercy of two important factors - the pace being suitable and luck in the closing stages when improving forward.

St Emilion should have been third instead of fourth in the 2000m Zabeel Classic on Boxing Day, being checked inside the last 100m in an incident that cost Matt Cameron a suspension.

Lizzie L'Amour is so talented she deserves to start favourite, even with the cards stacked against her.

Oaks winner Fanatic scored brilliantly on the second day at Te Rapa and is another luckless in the barrier draw, coming up with No18. She comes into the race at the top of her form and will feature.

Snow Secret, Megablast and recent graduate Marciano add strength to the middle of the field.

Snowdrop has come up with the favourable No1 gate in the Railway. She loomed up to win in the home straight on Boxing Day and was swamped late. "She's quite a gross mare and she has improved with that run," says trainer Tony Pike.

Stablemate Summer's Day, in her best form and due a win, is out in barrier No16. Ryan Mark, winner of the Railway 12 months ago, has barrier No10 and will be ridden by Opie Bosson, who did his best to make Ellerslie's Boxing Day his own.

Shezhardtocatch comes into the race nicely on 53.5kg and will have to overcome a midfield barrier to be successful.

Romancer, winner of two of his only three races, has come up with the rails barrier in the $100,000 Jamieson Park Great Northern Guineas, in which he faces Swissta and Cha Siu Bao.