Sprinter-miler Chasm will be in unfamiliar territory when he steps out over 2000 metres in the Easter Cup but trainer Brendan McCarthy is looking forward to the challenge.
McCarthy said the seven-year-old had been a great campaigner over the shorter distances, including a Group One placing in the 2010 Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington, but believes he could be even better over more ground.
“I know he’s never been tried over it but I have the feeling he will be better,” McCarthy said.
“I think we may have been going the wrong way with him trying to just make him sprint.”
He said Chasm’s backmarker racing style suggested he would be suited to longer races and that the Easter Cup was a good place to test him.
McCarthy has used his chiropractic skills to try to rejuvenate the gelding who joined his stable at the start of the year after a history of back problems.
First-up for the stable Chasm won the Listed Doveton Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield which was his first success since Anzac Day at Flemington in 2009, but McCarthy said he got keener to try him in longer races.
After another four runs McCarthy groomed him for the Easter Cup, stepping him up to 1600 metres at his last two runs.
He finished a close fourth to Dance With Her in Bendigo’s Golden Mile on March 17 and last Saturday was a three-quarter length second at Moonee Valley when he ran out of ground to reel in the winner Over Quota after a chequered run.
“He got into all sorts of trouble last week,” McCarthy said.
“He was probably eight wide on the turn but he kept coming.
“It was tough run but I am pretty happy with the way has pulled up.”
Three years ago Chasm finished second to Masked Assassin in the other Caulfield Easter feature, the Victoria Handicap but that doesn’t preclude him from running well in an Easter Cup.
In 1965 Captain Blue ran second in the Victoria Handicap and won the Easter Cup when the races were run on different days.
Webster won the 1959 Easter Cup and the 1962 Victoria Handicap and was also third in the 1961 Victoria Handicap while in 1950 Chicquita finished second in both the Victoria Handicap and the Easter Cup, and second in the 1951 Easter Cup.
Jamie Mott will ride Chasm, who has drawn the outside of the 15 runners and is at $14 in an open TAB Sportsbet market.
Folding Gear is the $5 favourite ahead of topweight Shewan ($5.50), who with 60kg would equal Future’s weight-carrying record set when he won in 1966.
Bendigo Golden Mile winner Dance With Her and Over Quota, who is chasing his sixth campaign win, are both at $9.
