Doomben Racing Tips for October 17 – Darcy to dominate in Race 7 at Doomben

Here are our best bets from the meeting, which comes on a huge day of racing from around Australia with The Everest to be run at Randwick, while the time-honoured Caulfield Cup pits the stayers up against one another at Caulfield.

All Kinds Of Folk looks a strong chance in Race 4 at Doomben, with conditions expected to suit the five-year-old mare. The Todd Pollard-trained galloper should appreciate the likelihood of a Soft track after resuming on a Good surface at Eagle Farm on October 3, where she finished fifth behind Cunnamulla Fella. She settled towards the rear on that occasion and was held up for a run at the top of the straight before working home reasonably well. The drop in grade is another positive, while she should strip fitter second-up and can settle closer to the speed from a favourable draw. Ben Thompson takes the ride and boasts an impressive 33% winning strike rate for the stable, returning a 35% profit on investment. With several factors in her favour, expect her to be launching a serious challenge at the business end.

Cafe Au Lait shapes as an interesting value runner in Race 6 after making the trip north from Sydney. The Chris Waller-trained mare finished last of nine at Warwick Farm most recently, but there were excuses after she began slowly and found herself poorly placed in a race run at a crawling early tempo. That effort is worth forgiving, particularly given she wasn't far away in her previous two appearances. The four-year-old should also appreciate any rain, having demonstrated her ability on testing ground when producing a significant improvement at the corresponding stage of her autumn preparation to finish third in the York Plate at Flemington on a Heavy track. The daughter of Alabama Express draws to settle closer to the speed this time around, and with conditions potentially falling into place, she looks capable of bouncing back at attractive odds.

Keen on Dominant Darcy in Race 7, with the Tony Gollan-trained mare boasting an outstanding record over the track and distance, having won three of her four attempts. The daughter of Zousain resumed over the slightly shorter 1110m last month and had little luck early, being pushed wide before finding the line strongly to finish fourth behind Just Precious. That form has since been franked, with two subsequent winners emerging from the race. She should take plenty of improvement from that first-up outing and looks ideally placed stepping back out over her preferred course and distance. Barrier one gives her the opportunity to enjoy an economical run just behind the likely leader, Spiethtacular, and provided the gaps appear at the right time, she will be very hard to hold out in the closing stages.