Sepoy not running from a fight
- by:Ray Thomas
- From:The Daily Telegraph
- February 25, 2012 12:00am
Classy colt: Sepoy (centre) winning the Golden Slipper. Picture: Mark EvansSource: The Daily Telegraph
THE easy option for Peter Snowden was not to run Sepoy at Caulfield today but leave the super colt in the stable to protect his winning record and stud value.
Instead, the Darley Crown Lodge supremo has taken up the challenge of running Sepoy in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate (1100m).
Snowden should be applauded for giving Australian race fans one final look at Sepoy and, if the three-year-old can defy the odds and win the feature sprint, it will define his champion status.
“I know facts and figures are against Sepoy but he has done the impossible before,” Snowden said.
“He’s that sort of horse, he’s definitely an A-grade sprinter and we are going to try to make history.
“We have never been ones to dodge a fight so we will be out there with all guns blazing (today).”
Sepoy does have so much against him today. If he can win, he will rewrite racing history including:
No Golden Slipper winner has won a Group 1 handicap against older horses as a three-year-old since Manikato in 1978.
The last Golden Slipper winner to win an Oakleigh Plate was Tontonan in 1974.
Sepoy, winner of 10 of his 11 starts, will take his prizemoney over the $4 million barrier if he can win today. Bookies rate the gleaming chestnut colt as the horse to beat, installing him the $2.80 favourite with TAB Sportsbet fixed odds ahead of boom galloper Bel Sprinter ($3.10).
Snowden said Sepoy has been working so well in preparation for his return to racing he felt the colt deserved his chance in the Oakleigh Plate before being sent to Dubai next month.
“I’m really happy with him,” Snowden explained. “I’m running him because he looks so well and his work has been great. He’s fitter than I would normally have him first-up and the barrier (11) is not a bad gate.
“If you draw an inside gate and make a mistake at the start, you could be in trouble but from 11 Kerrin (McEvoy) has options.”
With Snowden’s confidence soaring about Sepoy’s chances, he also gives Darley a real chance of snaring the Group 1 double at Caulfield with juveniles Applegate and Rusambo among the leading chances in the Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m).
Punters steer clear of Sepoy
Patrick Bartley
February 25, 2012
PUNTERS across Australia have deserted last year’s Blue Diamond Stakes and Golden Slipper winner Sepoy to such a degree in today’s Oakleigh Plate that Australia’s best sprinting three-year-old has been displaced as favourite for the group 1 sprint.
With mounting doubts that Sepoy can create a weight-carrying record for a three-year-old in today’s sprint, punters have largely looked beyond the youngster, and have heavily supported Mornington speedster Bel Sprinter.
Betstar’s Alan Eskander yesterday said he was astounded how the public targeted Bel Sprinter at the expense of a sprinter like Sepoy with such an imposing record.
”Once we set out markets and put Bel Sprinter at $4.40 our clients just kept hammering the quote to such a degree that Bel Sprinter is favourite at $3.10 and Sepoy has blown out to $3.30 from $2.10,” Eskander said..
”Sure Sepoy has to create history and Bel Sprinter is a serious horse of the future but the dramatic contrasting in fluctuations took us by surprise. And I don’t know if the flow of money for Bel Sprinter has stopped.
”But I think today at Caulfield at some point punters will see odds about Sepoy that they never thought were possible and trim that price. But at the moment it’s all one-way traffic.”
And some corporate bookmakers already have Bel Sprinter under $3.
Eskander also said that the Peter Moody-trained Curtana ($19 into $13) and the David Hayes-prepared Eagle Falls ($21 into $15) also had support in a race of great depth.
Sepoy a big drifter in Oakleigh Plate
- by:Matt Stewart
- From:Herald Sun
- February 25, 2012 12:00am
Kerrin McEvoy rides superstar horse Sepoy at a trial in Seymour. Picture: Darren McnamaraSource: Herald Sun
PUNTERS have sent betting drifter Sepoy a clear Oakleigh Plate message: you’re good, but you’re no Black Caviar.
The champion colt was yesterday deposed in some markets as favourite for today’s famous sprint by up-and-coming star Bel Sprinter.
Sepoy, a winner of 10 of his 11 starts and regarded as inferior only to Black Caviar over a sprint trip, blew out from $2 to $3.70 with Sportingbet.
He will carry 58kg, while Bel Sprinter, with 54kg, was crunched into $3.20.
Eskander’s Betstar had both sprinters as $3.30 equal favourites.
TAB Sportsbet had Sepoy clinging to favouritism at $3, with Bel Sprinter $3.10.
Betstar’s Michael Horne said the betting proved only one sprinter appeared immune from history and handicaps: Black Caviar.
Dual Choice, with 59.5kg in 1972, was the last horse to carry 58kg-plus to win an Oakleigh Plate. No placegetter since 1972 has carried 58kg or more and only five of the past 40 winners have lumped 57kg or more.
“I guess that’s the story here,” Horne said.
“Nothing touches Black Caviar, but Sepoy is a three-year-old with 58kg. They want to risk him. It’s remarkable in a way. Sepoy has won four Group 1s and Bel Sprinter a Listed race.
“I reckon the shift will come back to Sepoy because punters will realise he’s getting out to ridiculous odds.”
Bill Richmond, from Sportingbet, said the betting was “all one-way traffic”.
“It is clearly Sepoy’s greatest test. The only one they want is Bel Sprinter,” Richmond said.
Trainer Peter Snowden acknowledged yesterday that Sepoy faced the test of his career in his last Australian race, but said the colt was “110 per cent”.
Bel Sprinter’s trainer Jason Warren was supremely confident this was his gelding’s chance to knock off Sepoy.
“Look, Sepoy is a superstar, second only to Black Caviar, I reckon,” Warren said.
“But I’ve targeted this race for six months and Sepoy’s just kicking off and being aimed at a race in Dubai.
“I respect Sepoy greatly, but I reckon he faces a pretty big task with the weight.”
