Nightmare draws for seven Jewels favourites - and Copy That cops the worst of it

Today’s barrier draw proved a nightmare for almost all the favourites for Sunday week’s Harness Jewels.

Horses who were at unbackably tight odds yesterday for the Cambridge marquee event will drift markedly in the betting including:

• Amazing Dream, who was at $1.15 but has drawn the inside of the second row in the Four-Year-Old Diamond.
• Krug, a $1.45 favourite for the Three-Year-Old Emerald, who is also buried one on the second row.
• Lincoln Farms’ Copy That, at $2.30 before the draw, is landed with the outside of the second row in the Four-Year-Old Emerald, eliminating his gate speed and chance of leading.
• Bettor Twist, $1.25 in the futures market for the Three-Year-Old Diamond, gets eight, the outside of the front row.
• Five Wise Men, a $1.70 pop in the Three-Year-Old Ruby will have to cope with seven on the front line.
• Both Muscle Mountain, $2.10, and Bolt For Brilliance, $2.30, cop seven on the front and two on the second row in the Three-Year-Old Ruby and
• Two-Year-Old Ruby co-favourite Highgrove, at $2.70 yesterday, is wide out in seven.

Only True Fantasy, the $1.60 favourite for the Two-Year-Old Diamond drew well in three while Two-Year-Old Emerald top fancy Akuta, $1.45, will start from five.

Ray Green … Why not an open public draw?Open public draw

Trainer Ray Green was philosophical about Copy That’s draw while still questioning why an open public draw, instead of computer generated alleys, wasn’t done for such a feature meeting.

“It would certainly silence the critics who say the draws are rigged and it would be a useful marketing promotion.”

“But luck’s the name of the game at the end of the day and you’ve just go to cop it I suppose. Somebody’s got to be out there.

“On paper it’s a terrible draw for Copy That but you just don’t know what can happen.

“A lot of drivers panic in those big races and do crazy things they normally wouldn’t do.

“We’ll be looking to lock on to something with a live chance. It would certainly silence the critics if he was to still win. First they said he couldn’t get two miles then he was only a front-runner …

“We’ve won a Jewels from a bad draw before.” (Sir Lincoln drew 11 when he won the Three-Year-Old Emerald at Cambridge in 2010.)”

Ironically, Green says on paper, stablemate Tommy Lincoln could now be the stable’s best shot in the race from three on the gate.

“With his gate speed he could cross Kango and New York Minute, lead and be in the money.

“But I certainly won’t be tipping mine out as winners.”

Both American Dealer and Krug, pictured battling it out here in a Sires Stakes heat last year, have drawn terribly in the Three-Year-Old Emerald.Dealer gets bad hand again

Green and his American owners Gordon Banks and Marc Hanover were also left ruing American Dealer’s continued bad luck in big races after he drew two on the second row in the Three-Year-Old Emerald.

About the only solace for Green was that hot favourite Krug will start inside him, buried on the fence, negating his front-running prowess.

“It certainly becomes a lottery with such big fields. There is definitely a case to be made that we should only have one line of seven or eight horses.”

Green says the irony is that the stable’s least likely runner, Sugar Apple, has been given the best draw and will start from the pole in the Two-Year-Old Emerald.

Sugar Apple made the race only by default, never having placed in three starts and with earnings of just $880, after a slew of withdrawals.

Lincoln Farms’ better performed two-year-old Arden’s Horizon is two on the second row.

All five of Lincoln Farms’ Jewels runners will trial at Cambridge on Saturday.

The fields for Jewels day are: