Feroce will not back-up in this Saturday’s $2.5 million Group 1 All-Star Mile at Flemington, but trainer Dom Sutton is certainly not running from a challenge with his stable star.
The Australian Guineas winner is being directed towards the Victoria Racing Club’s flagship autumn event, the $2.5 million Group 1 Australian Cup on March 29.
Sutton said a shot at this weekend’s 1600-metre event was tempting, but he was reluctant to take on established stars such as Mr Brightside, Another Wil and Atishu seven days after a career peak performance.
“He’s bright as a button, nice and sound, and we were obviously dangled the carrot of the All-Star Mile but we’ll look after him and look to an Australian Cup in four weeks’ time,” Sutton said.
“He owes us nothing now, he’s not the sort of horse I want to be backing up, especially after the effort he put in on Saturday.
“If we look after him, I’ll sure he’ll look after us.”
Sutton said Feroce could have a lead-up run in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m), which has moved from Blue Diamond Day to the Caulfield meeting on March 15, or possibly head straight to the 2000m Australian Cup third-up.
Super Cool, in 2013, was the last three-year-old to win the Australian Cup, while the only other two to win it at weight-for-age are Hall of Famers Dulcify (1979) and Saintly (1996).
Only four three-year-olds have run in the Australian Cup since Super Cool; Shamus Award and Thunder Fantasy, who finished sixth and eighth in 2014, and Virtuous Circle and Bank Maur, who ran 12th and 13th two years ago.
Sutton is well aware of the challenge confronting Feroce, but he would rather tackle open-age horses on a Good track than his own age on wet ground.
“It was always the Rosehill Guineas that was going to be his third-up run, but when he ran first-up in the CS Hayes Stakes, Billy (Egan, jockey) came back and said he just hated the soft ground and got no traction whatsoever,” Sutton said.
“With how the weather forecast is up in Sydney at the moment, and it generally tends to be soft ground up there, we have to maybe reassess and see what’s available down here.”
Sutton does not anticipate 2000m will hold any fears for the son of Super Seth and Corinthia, who is a descendant of the legendary broodmare Eight Carat
“Obviously he’s very good at a mile and you’ve always got to take that next step to get to 2000, especially against the weight-for-age horses, but the way that he gallops at home, his recovery and the data we get all leads towards being a 2000-metre horse,” Sutton said.
