RACING Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter has paid New Zealand champion It’s A Dundeel a massive compliment. Carpenter allocated It’s A Dundeel 56 kg in the Melbourne Cup, the highest rated four-year-old in the weights.
The last four-year-old asked to carry 56 kg in the Melbourne Cup was So You Think the year after he won the Cox Plate.
“It’s A Dundeel is a four time Group 1 winner during his three-year-old career. He won the Rosehill Guineas by seven lengths from Sacred Falls, which went on to win a Doncaster Handicap and he won the ATC Derby by six lengths,” Carpenter said.
“So You Think only won one Group 1 as a three-year-old, but it was a devastating win in the Cox Plate.”
It’s A Dundeel will carry 1.5 kg more than Australian Cup winner Super Cool, the next highest weighted four-year-old in the Melbourne Cup.
Last season’s Queensland Derby winner Hawkspur has been asked to carry 53.5 kg.
Carpenter said he was forced to re-evaluate Hawkspur’s weight after his impressive victory in the Chelmsford Stakes (1600 m) at Randwick on September 7.
He said he raised Hawkspur’s Melbourne Cup weight by 0.5 kg from what he was allocated in the Caulfield Cup.
But, Carpenter noted that no Queensland Derby winner has ever progressed to win a Melbourne Cup the next season.
Adam Hamilton, spokesman for Tab.com.au, said Hawkspur had been strongly supported from the time markets were released. He said Hawkspur had firmed from $26 to $11.
Hamilton said while there had been good support for Hawkspur, there had been minimal interest in It’s A Dundeel, which is now a $31 chance.
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