Gotts prepared the mare Rich Dreams to win the race in 1994 with former Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michael Clarke having the ride.

This year’s AAMI Launceston Cup has attracted acceptances from Victorian female trainers Louise Bonella (Ascana) and Rhonda Mangan (Terouge).

Good and bad barriers

Since 1914, the barrier positions one, four and 19 have failed to produce an AAMI Launceston Cup winner.

The most successful barrier has been 11 with 12 winners, followed by barrier 12 with 11 winners. The next best is barrier nine with eight winners.

In the past six years, the barrier 20 has produced two winners – Ticking Away (1997) and St Andrews (2000).

Sixty years since 3YO winner

The 1943 winner Entitle is the last three-year-old to take victory in the AAMI Launceston Cup. The race has not attracted many three-year-olds in recent years.

Two dead-heats

There have been two dead-heats in the history of the AAMI Launceston Cup. In 1902, Cordon and The Sirdar could not be separated. Their respective owners, S M Wilson and Bill Clare, trained the horses. In 1910, Clare again featured with another horse he owned, Drumreagh, dead-heating with Lliad (trainer J Cripps).

St Leger guide

The Tasmanian St Leger (2100m) is a fairly good guide to the fortunes of AAMI Launceston Cup starters. Last Sunday, the John Blacker-trained Dartington gained ballot free entry into the cup after winning the St Leger for the second successive year.

In 2001, St. Andrews and Naucho dead-heated in the St Leger and both were placed in the AAMI Launceston Cup behind Full Of Rhythm with St. Andrews second, three-quarters of a length ahead of Naucho.

Dartington finished fifth in last year’s cup won by St. Andrews and was an encouraging sixth in this year’s AAMI Hobart Cup (2400m) won by Jeune’s Mark at Elwick on February 10.

‘The Saint’ proves sensational

St. Andrews, a bargain purchase at $200 as a weanling, has amassed more than $450,000 in prizemoney and last year rewrote the record books.

The George Blacker trained gelding became the first galloper since Brallos in 1977 to complete the AAMI Hobart-Launceston Cups double. He also became the first horse in two decades to be placed in the Mowbray feature for the third successive year.

This equalled the achievement of Andrias, who was placed in three successive AAMI Launceston Cups in the early 1980s, including a victory in 1982.

St. Andrews won the race in 2000, was runner-up to Full Of Rhythm in 2001 and was victorious last year.

Fillies and mares fail

Fillies and mares do not have a good record in the AAMI Launceston Cup. Only 22 females have been successful on the 137 occasions of the feature race.

The John Blacker pair Marette and Dartington, Terry Roles’s Almost Spring and Leon Macdonald’s Glitzy Guru are among the mares in this year’s line-up.

Weight carriers

The heaviest weight carried to victory in the AAMI Hobart Cup was 9 stone 7 pound. by Duration in 1886. The lightest weight carried by the winner was 6 stone 7 pound by Strop in 1876 when the 16.1 hands bay was a 14-year-old.

Media Release - AAMI Launceston Cup