Sydney Cup Tips & Preview 2023

Looking for Sydney Cup tips and best bets? We dissect times and form to find the winner of the 2023 Sydney Cup at Randwick.

SYDNEY CUP BETTING SNAPSHOT

It is the international contender, Cleveland, from the Joseph O’Brien stable that is the $3.50 favourite for he Sydney Cup with NEDS after the barrier draw ahead of his stablemate, Baron Samedi, at $9. King Frankel at $10 just shades the 2022 Melbourne Cup (3200m) winner, Gold Trip, as well as High Emocean and Gin Martini, who are all at $11. 

There are 20 runners in the field and the last start Tancred Stakes (2400m) winner, Arapaho, is at $13 ahead of Surefire at $15. Nerve Not Verve and the 2022 Sydney Cup winner, Knights Order, head the rest of the contenders at the $17. 

SYDNEY CUP FORM ANALYSIS

Cleveland is one of eight that come out of the Tancred Stakes and was 5th in that race behind Arapaho. The lightly raced five-year-old in the Team Williams colours drops 8kg in weight and produced the fastest last 200m to finish two lengths off Arapaho. He was first up that day and should improve stepping up to the two miles. 

The winner out of that comes in with the best last start benchmark figures of any runner in the field, going 8.8 lengths faster than standard benchmark. Gold Trip ran 7th and was solid to the line. His peak run since coming to Australia was in the Melbourne Cup, going 17.3 lengths faster than standard benchmark to take out the race that stops the nation last year.

Other notable contenders to come out of the Tancred include King Frankel (3rd) and Knights Order (6th). King Frankel has progressed through the grades nicely and also drops considerably in weight to the 50kg. 

Knights Order led them up in the Tancred before just fading late. He went 18.4 lengths faster than standard in this race last year, which is the best figure that any horse in this race has produced in the past two years. That came on a Heavy 10 track. Not sure we will get to that range on Saturday with some better weather forecast in the lead in. 

Baron Samedi has some form that is definitely good enough to win this race and his last run came at the Curragh in Ireland over the distance, finishing runner-up to the gun filly, Emily Dickinson. That was on a Heavy deck and the son of Harbour Watch comes in with a similar gap between runs. 

Five runners come out of the Chairman’s Quality (2600m) that was run at Randwick last weekend, including the winner, Surefire. This might not quite be the form for this but Joao Moreira sticks on board Surefire, who went just 4.8 lengths faster than standard due to the slow early tempo. Nerve Not Verve stuck on for 3rd and was runner-up in the Auckland Cup (3200m) prior to that. 

High Emocean was 4th in the Chairmans Quality and worth noting that she charged home for 3rd in the Melbourne Cup last year. The Maher/Eustace mare is 1kg better at the weights over Gold trip from that run. 

SYDNEY CUP TIPS AND BEST BETS

I am going with the race favourite, Cleveland, in the Sydney Cup. Must respect what the Joseph O’Brien stable do when sending their gallopers to Australia, particularly when teaming up with Team Williams. The son of Camelot comes out of the right race for mine and let down well at the top of the straight in what was an excellent Sydney Cup trial. Kerrin McEvoy rides and will look for cover from barrier 17. We should see enough speed in the race with the likes of Knights Order, Stockman, Sir Lucan, Torrens and King Frankel all a chance to go forward. With just the 51kg, he looks to be a very strong proposition over the two miles.