Ballymac Duffle gets off the mark down under

Picture from Star Sports X feed

Duffle books his Melbourne Cup ticket

Trap six was no hinderance to the Star Sports & Orchestrate English Derby third Ballymac Duffle at Sandown Park earlier on today was he booked his place in the Melbourne Cup draw thanks to a win in a Melbourne Cup Prelude which allows him a ticket to the heats. 

He is now in the care of Korie-Lee Heinrich, the 31-year-old coming from Australian greyhound royalty as the daughter of Andrea Dailly. Dailly was the handler of Fernando Bale and Dana Double One amongst many others who have racked up Group 1 wins for the former trainer.

Heinrich took over the operation in April of this year and has already notched a Group 1 success herself with Indy Melman taking the Maturity Classic at The Meadows at the end of July.

Now she has Irish hopes in her kennel with Ballymac Duffle who only made his Australian debut last week at Ballarat over an insufficient 450m. He was beaten eight lengths in third but it was only the first step for the Liam Dowling-owned star.

515m around Sandown was much more to his liking today, only turning in about sixth in his contest but a little check of stride at the opening bend allowed him to slip around the inside of rivals to head into the backstraight in fourth. 

We all know the middle gears and then the stamina that the former Towcester track record holder has, powering around the outside of the leader to get on top by a comfortable length and three-quarters by the time the line came. 

A winning time of 29.54 is not going to have the home team quaking in their boots just yet, but it's pretty easy to think that he is going to able to knock at least three lengths off that effort with a cleaner run next time out, improving just for another look at the track.

The issue, as it is for all of the 64 runners who will line up in the heats, is that it is the winner only who gets the ticket into the final. There is no long, drawn out competition, if you don't win your heat you go home. An inside draw and a smart break are going to be required from Duffle in whatever heat he finds himself. 

It is not normally a lightning fast winning time in the final itself but to get through from the heats tends to take a little bit more doing. The track record was set in a Melbourne Cup final, however, with Hard Style Rico stopping the clock at 28.91 in the 2020 decider. The heats of the Melbourne Cup are on Saturday, November 21 with the final seven days later on Saturday, November 28th. 

Irish winners in Melbourne are a regular occurrence in the horse racing world. Dermot Weld was the first to land the thoroughbred Melbourne Cup in 1993 with Vintage Crop and again with Media Puzzle in 2002. Joseph O'Brien has also landed a pair with Rekindling in 2017 and Twilight Payment in 2020. Hopefully, there will be an Irish party down under at the end of next month.