Shooting for the Bletchingly

AJC Derby winner Shoot Out (pictured winning the Randwick Guineas) has been installed a surprising second favourite for tomorrow’s Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (wfa 1200m) at Caulfield.

He is as short as $4.20 with some pre-post operators, a firm second pick behind the mare Velocitea, who is favourite around $3.50.

Bookmakers are obviously expecting Shoot Out to be fresh and sprint well despite the fact trainer John Wallace warns that the almost 4YO (on Sunday) is “going into the race very underdone”.

Wallace said he is planning a long, race-driven campaign to get Shoot Out fit for his chief assignments, the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double.

The Bletchingly – run either late in July or early in August – is not a traditional lead-up race for the spring majors. The 1400m Group 2 Liston Stakes (wfa, Caulfield), run two weeks after the Bletchingly, is usually the starting point for the spring stayers.

But the Bletchingly is not a race without some spring influence.

Elvstroem resumed with a third behind Le Zagaletta in the 2004 Bletchingly Stakes, and he went on to win the Group 1 Caulfield Cup after winning the Group 1 Underwood Stakes and Group 1 Turnbull Stakes. He capped of his campaign with a sound fourth behind Makybe Diva in the Melbourne Cup.

It’s worth noting that Elvstroem, like Shoot Out, also had won a Derby the previous season – the Group 1 Victoria Derby.

Back in 1994, when the Bletchingly was first run – and won by Poetic King, who went on to win the Group 1 Toorak Handicap that preparation – George Hanlon used the sprint to kick off the cups campaign for Our Pompeii, who had won the Group 1 Adelaide Cup in the autumn.

Our Pompeii was only 13^th behind Paris Lane in the Caulfield Cup and 15^th behind Jeune in the Melbourne Cup, but he won the Group 2 Sandown Cup at the end of the campaign.