Real Punters Play Here – Australian Cup

Posted on March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 | Posted by TABtouch

Racing And Sports’ Brad Bishop looks into how Pride Of Jenni profiles for the Australian Cup, brought to you by TABtouch

Each time Pride Of Jenni goes around these days, the crowd favourite gets a chance to rewrite history.

Already the oldest mare to win at the highest level in Australia since the Group 1 system was introduced in 1979, the eight-year-old gets the chance to better that every time she steps out in another Group 1.

The Ciaron Maher-trained mare contests another this weekend and, for the third time, is a leading fancy with TABtouch for the $2 million Australian Cup at Flemington.

The daughter of Pride Of Dubai went close at her first attempt, narrowly beaten by Cascadian, but was down the track last year behind stablemate Light Infantry Man.

Pride Of Jenni ran to 117 on the Timeform scale in the 2024 Australian Cup, which she followed up with a head-spinning 129 performance in her Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) win, but she has not run anywhere near those two ratings in her runs at the trip since.

In three runs, she has finished second-last twice and third-last once and failed to crack triple figures on the Timeform scale.

Poor recent form at 2000m is not the only trend Pride Of Jenni needs to buck this weekend, heading into the race second-up after a third placing in the Group 1 All-Star Mile (1600m) on March 7.

Overall, her second-up record reads impressively. She won the 2024 All-Star Mile second-up and has seven top-three finishes from 10 starts.

But two of the unplaced runs have come at her past two second-up appearances.

Her 15-length ninth of 10 in last year’s Australian Cup came second-up, while last spring she was second-up in the 1600m King Charles III Stakes, when she ran seventh in a rating of 113.

The average rating required to win an Australian Cup this century is 122.5 and while that has dipped slightly of late, it is still 120.6 in the past decade.

Light Infantry Man ran 122 to win last year which was, and remains, his career peak.

Tom Kitten is coming off a 122 win in the All-Star Mile, his second-straight win in that race after going to 123 to win last year. He’s currently second favourite and interestingly, since 1979, the second favourite in betting has won almost as many Australian Cups (24%) as favourites (26.5%) which is above the usual market average for second favourites across all thoroughbred races.

The other in this year’s race to have run to at least 120 is Birdman, who ran 121 to win the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield on March 14.

He looks the horse on the up, having also gone 119 to win the Group 2 Blamey Stakes (1600m) the start before the Peter Young. Before this campaign, Birdman’s peak Timeform figure was 113.

He was the $3.50 favourite with TABtouch at 9am Thursday, but needs to overcome a recent poor run by favourites to score.

Fiorente, the most recent of the 10 horses to complete Peter Young Stakes/Australian Cup double that Birdman is chasing, won as favourite in 2014 but since him Cascadian ($4 in 2023) is the only outright favourite to score and Humidor won as $4.20 equal favourite in 2017. The Peter Young Stakes is responsible for 40% of Australian Cup winners since 1979.

For value punters, historically, 4-year-olds dominate the Australian Cup, claiming 14 wins – and this year’s crop is strong. Leica Lucy, Sabaj, Queensland mare Philia and Kiwi raider Damask Rose all fit this winning age profile.

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