HORSE RACING
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They've won a couple of Kembla Grange maiden races between them, yet Bede Murray has seen enough in O'Reilly's Revenge and Darci Magic to join the clamour for The Championships riches in autumn.
The pair of Hussar's Lodge three-year-olds were among the 127 entries for the $3 million Doncaster Mile released earlier this week - joining the likes of Boban, Guelph, Red Tracer, Streama and Zoustar.
"You never know with young horses who show a bit of promise how much they'll improve from one preparation to the next," Murray said.
"You're mad if you don't nominate them [early because of the late entry fee]. That's why they're there. It's all in case something might happen."
The more likely scenario for O'Reilly's Revenge is an autumn campaign structured around the Australian Derby (2400m), a race Murray won 13 years ago with Universal Prince.
"That's what we said when he won at Kembla that day and Nathan Berry thought he could be a Derby colt," Murray said. "Then I thought last year the Doncaster was won by an O'Reilly three-year-old [Sacred Falls] so you never really know what heights they might get to."
Kerry Parker has also paid up with last-start impressive Kembla winner Filomena for the famous Randwick mile.
O'Reilly's Revenge and Darci Magic could even meet first-up in a 1400-metre race at Randwick next Wednesday.
In other The Championships entries, Murray has nominated Chief In Command and Sure And Fast for the Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) and Sequential Cat for the Royal Sovereign Stakes (1200m).
Gwenda Markwell has And God Said Yes an Australian Derby nominee, while Fascinating remains in Australian Oaks contention.
Parker holds two entries in the Sydney Cup via Planet Purple and Butcher Boy, a race Robert Price has slipped onto the radar of Full View.