John Sadler says a lack of suitable options for lightly raced sprinter Sartorial Splendor means the colt will kick off his campaign in a Group Two race after missing a run at Caulfield.
Sartorial Splendor was scratched from Saturday’s W J Adams Handicap because of a wide draw and will start in the Rubiton Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield a week later.
Sartorial Splendor missed another Caulfield start two weeks ago with a sore mouth.
Sadler has been critical of the programming for rising young sprinters.
Sartorial Splendor has won two of his seven starts and has a rating of 78 which Sadler said makes him hard to place.
Sadler said horses were well catered for at the top end while those with a rating below 70 were also well looked after.
“But those horses that are in the middle, they don’t put races on for them,” Sadler said.
“There was a three-year-old and upwards benchmark 78 on Saturday, but against matured four, five, six and seven-year-olds, he’d be carrying 58 kilos plus.”
Sadler said there was not a suitable three-year-old race under 1200m for Satorial Splendor to resume in so he turned his attention to the Rubiton Stakes.
Previous winners of the Rubiton include Super Elegant, Eagle Falls, Lankan Rupee, Chautauqua and Nature Strip.
“With a mile-and-a-quarter horse you might start them off at 1400 metres or 1600 metres, but 1200-metre horses you don’t usually want to kick them off at 1200, you want to start them off at 1000 or 1100 metres,” Sadler said.
“There’s no races for him, unless you run a 78 (rated) horse in the (weight-for-age) Lightning, which is not very smart.
“The biggest trouble is during the spring, and more importantly the autumn, they don’t cater for the second-tier sprinter.
“It’s all about the top ones while the bottom ones are well catered for.”
Sadler said Sartorial Splendor was being set for the $500,000 Inglis Dash (1100m) at Caulfield on March 14.
