Maffioso will be out to become the 13th horse to win a Breeders Crown final from barrier three this Sunday
Maffioso’s Tabcorp Australasian Breeders Crown rivals have enough to worry about in Sunday’s $100,000 Group 1 4YO Entires and Geldings Final without the star entire starting from the most successful barrier.
But gate three – which is where the son of Presidential Ball will roll from in the 2240-metre decider if emergency Francos Lancelot is scratched – has supplied more Breeders Crown winners than any other alley.
Twelve Breeders Crown champions – an average of more than one a year since its inauguration in 1998 – have started from barrier three.
That is three more than the next most successful alley (eight), while gates four and six have supplied eight winners. The outside of the front row (seven) is not surprisingly the least successful barrier, having never supplied a winner.
The statistics were music to the ears of Smythes Creek-based Tonkin, who was thrilled to see Maffioso back up his Chariots Of Fire win with a stunning 27-metre semi final victory last Sunday night.
“He’s got a good alley and the horse is well in himself, so there really shouldn’t be any excuses now,” Tonkin said.
Maffioso’s biggest danger and fellow heat winner Rohan Home has a wide draw of six to overcome in the 2240m decider, while other heat winners Trojan Luck (10) and Tear It All Away (13) are both off the second line.
That has the three-time Group 1 winner well-placed to finally secure the Breeders Crown that Tonkin covets so dearly.
Maffioso has won 23 of his 37 starts and $546,000 in stakes, but has been forced to settle for trips to the runner-up stall after his two and three-year-old finals.
He was beaten two metres by Flightpath in the two-year-old final at Ballarat and last year finished four metres astern Magic Operative at Bendigo.
“He’s run sensational times and the horses that have beaten him haven’t gone on, but he has, so it would be great if he could win one,” Tonkin said.
Maffioso, who will be driven by Chris Alford, is engaged in the fourth event on Sunday’s stunning 10-event program, which will be decided at 1.55pm.
Tonkin’s only other runner for the day comes up in the final event, the $60,000 Breeders Crown Graduate Free-For-All (5.40pm), where last-start Tabcorp Park Cup winner Captain Kalahari will chase a fourth straight victory.
