Sepoy set for Oakleigh Plate
By Robert Windmill
Sepoy's amazing improvement in the last two weeks has convinced trainer Peter Snowden to attempt a weight-carrying record with the Dubai-bound three-year-old in the Oakleigh Plate.
Snowden said the colt, who has been defeated just once in 11 starts, was leaner than ever before for a first-up run in Saturday's 1100-metre helter-skelter sprint with 58kg on his back.
Sepoy has a kilo more than last year's winner Eagle Falls and will giving as much as six kilos to eight of the other 16 runners.
Snowden said the weight difference between Sepoy and the older horses had been a concern but in the end the star colt was primed to run.
"He has improved so much in a fortnight I can't believe it," Snowden told Radio Sport National.
"Normally he is round and burly first-up but to me he looks like he's had a run and tightened up really nicely."
Snowden said a Flemington jumpout two weeks ago and subsequent trackwork had brought on Sepoy more than he could have imagined.
"He looks in great order and I'm very happy with the way he's been working," Snowden said.
"To my eye the way the horse looks he needs to run.
"The work he did yesterday morning really topped him off and I feel he is going to run very well on Saturday."
Sepoy would be the highest-weighted three-year-old to win the Oakleigh Plate, eclipsing the 57kg record set by Fastnet Rock in 2005.
Doubts about him setting a new weight mark surfaced when Sepoy eased from $2 to $2.30 following strong support for the Jason Warren-trained Bel Sprinter who was backed in from $4.40 to $3.20.
The winner of five of his six starts, Bel Sprinter has 54kg in the Oakleigh Plate and is the only other horse in the market under double-figure odds.
Early punters also jumped on board the Peter Moody-trained Curtana who has firmed from $31 to the fourth line of betting at $18.
Facile Tigre, First Command and African Pulse are $15.
Kerrin McEvoy will ride Sepoy who is resuming after an unbeaten spring campaign with his last of five wins that preparation being the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on October 29.
McEvoy will also ride Sepoy when he runs in the $2 million Golden Shaheen (1200m) in Dubai on March 31.
© Australian Associated Press Pty Limited (AAP) 2012
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