SUPER colt Sepoy could find himself among the top half-dozen highest-ranked horses in the world if he can set a weight-carrying record in the group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield tomorrow, reports The Age. It says: Sepoy, a four-time group 1 winner with a record of 10 wins and one narrow defeat, is already recognised as the world's leading three-year-old sprinter in the 2011 World Thoroughbred Ratings with a mark of 123, but that rating can rise sharply if he successfully carries 58 kilograms aga
SUPER colt Sepoy could find himself among the top half-dozen highest-ranked horses in the world if he can set a weight-carrying record in the group 1 Oakleigh Plate at Caulfield tomorrow, reports The Age.
It says: Sepoy, a four-time group 1 winner with a record of 10 wins and one narrow defeat, is already recognised as the world's leading three-year-old sprinter in the 2011 World Thoroughbred Ratings with a mark of 123, but that rating can rise sharply if he successfully carries 58 kilograms against the older horses and beats them convincingly under handicap conditions tomorrow.
Racing Victoria Ltd's general manager of racing, Greg Carpenter, said if Sepoy was to become the highest-weighted three-year-old to win the Oakleigh Plate, which was first run in 1884, it would be a feat difficult to ignore for the international handicapping panel.
''I think an impressive win with that weight against the older horses would be most likely to affect his rating, but much still depends on how he performs, and if he was to win, how much he wins by,'' Carpenter said.
With a rating of 123, Sepoy is only three points shy of former Australian champion So You Think, whose rating has him as the equal-fifth-best thoroughbred in the world.
Sepoy has another chance to improve his rating on March 31 when he races in front of his owner, Sheikh Mohammed, in Dubai in the group 1 Golden Shaheen. He will then be sent to the Godolphin stable's British headquarters at Newmarket with a Royal Ascot campaign likely in June. By then his trainer, Peter Snowden, and his son, Paul, will have said goodbye to the colt that they compare with the mighty Lonhro. (wsww.theage.com.au)