Sepoy pleased jockey Kerrin McEvoy when he warmed up for his major spring goal in Saturday’s Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes with a jumpout against stablemate Dysphonia at Flemington on Tuesday.
“I was really happy with him. He travelled nicely in behind and hit the line full of running. It was nice work leading into his main race on Saturday,” McEvoy said.
“(Trainer) Pete (Snowden) gave him an easy time since his last win and he travelled really well in his work.
“He was nice and fresh and seems happy and he’s given me similar feels in his lead-ups to wins before, so I’m happy going into this race.”
Sepoy has been beaten only once in 10 starts and is chasing his fourth Group One victory to go with his Blue Diamond, Golden Slipper and Manikato Stakes wins.
Looking for possible dangers McEvoy mentioned Bear Hero, a son of General Nediym who has won three of his four starts in Hong Kong where he is trained by David Ferraris.
“It will be interesting to see how the Hong Kong horse goes,” he said.
“By all reports he has worked well at Werribee so we’ve got to come here with all guns blazing.
“This has been Sepoy’s main aim all spring.”
McEvoy is after his second win in the race having won it aboard Innovation Girl in 2002.
There are only 12 entries for the 1200m feature and three of them competed in an 800m jumpout at Flemington on Tuesday with the John O’Shea-trained Foxwedge, ridden by Nash Rawiller, finishing runner-up to talented mare Sister Madly.
The Danny O’Brien-trained pair Adamantium and Shopaholic were close up in third and fourth positions.
“I was happy enough with him. Obviously Nash was pretty negative early to make sure he relaxed and got a couple (of lengths) off a very good mare,” O’Shea said.
“Most important for him was to get him to attack the line and his last 50 metres was very good.”
Foxwedge has won four of his eight starts in Sydney including the Group Two Roman Consul Stakes (1200m) last start at Randwick.
O’Shea said it was very important to give Sydney horses a look at the tracks they are racing on when they come to Melbourne.
“The more practice we can get on them the better,” he said.
“We are under no illusions as to the quality of Sepoy but they are young colts and he’s fit and well and he probably warrants a bit of a crack at it.”
Sepoy has a two-nil record over Foxwedge with O’Shea’s colt finishing seventh to him in the Golden Slipper after his third, with Sepoy second, to Smart Missile in the Todman Stakes when only a long neck separated the two placegetters.
AAP TURF
