Sydney Cup plans were scraped for Sonntag earlier this campaign but trainer Henry Dwyer believes another two-mile race is well within reach of the Queensland Derby winner.
The four-year-old runs in Saturday’s $200,000 Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington after returning to winning form at the same track last start when stepping up to 2800m for the first time.
The gelding has topweight of 60kg which is Dwyer’s main query but he is confident the stayer will still be hard to beat in the 3200m Listed race.
Sonntag kept responding in the straight under apprentice Michael Dee last start to fend off Crafty Cruiser who is among the 18 nominations for Saturday’s race.
Mark Zahra has been called upon to ride Sonntag in Saturday’s non-claiming race and Dwyer believes the stayer has come on from his last-start victory.
“He’s probably a little bit worse off at the weights this time but he was quite strong at the end of the 2800 metres so I’d imagine the extra 400 metres will benefit him as much as any of the other horses,” Dwyer said.
“So it probably equals itself out with the weights.
“He’s proven at the class so the class isn’t an issue. The distance shouldn’t be an issue, it’s just the 60 kilos. He’s only a little horse, and the relative weights to a horse like Crafty Cruiser who gets in better.”
Dwyer has always maintained Sonntag would be suited over 3200m which is why the Sydney Cup was in his sights. But those plans were later shelved.
“He just wasn’t quite measuring up to those better class of stayers at the time,” Dwyer said.
“I’d be interested to see if we had have persevered with that preparation where he would have finished (in the Sydney Cup) given it was run on a wet track which would have suited him.
“But we abandoned that pretty early and just lowered our sights a bit and this is where we ended up.”
Dwyer believes the horses that met Sonntag last start would have to have improved to turn the tables.
Andrew Ramsden nominations also include Adelaide Cup winner Tanby and Makybe Diva’s relation La Amistad.
