A capable Group race sprinter on his day, SansomĀ has become a head scratcher for his trainer Phillip StokesĀ in his bid to find the spark to turn the geldingās form around.
Sansom heads to Flemington on Saturday to run in the Listed Hilton Nicholas Straight Six (1200m) and break a losing sequence of seven unplaced outings since winning the Group 3Ā BletchinglyĀ Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield last July.
In those seven starts, all in āBlack Typeā races, Sansom has only once started at a single figure quote, that was when finishing fifth behind IroncladĀ in the Listed Matrice Stakes (1200m) at Morphettville in March.
That was the sprinters first-up performance after a spell and his two subsequent efforts have resulted in a fourth-place finish in the ListedĀ HareebaĀ Stakes (1200m) at Mornington before a return trip to Adelaide to run eighth in the Listed CityĀ OfĀ Adelaide Stakes (1400m) on the Morphettville Parks track on April 30.
Stokes has all but lost patience with Sansom and isĀ hopingĀ a return to the straight track at Flemington, where he has performed well previously, may just be the spark to reignite the geldingās form.
āHeās a real enigma and I donāt know which one will rock up,ā Stokes said.
āThe horse is workingĀ well, he looks great, but Iāve given up trying to work out which one will turn up on race day.
āThe straight track wonāt hold any fears for him.Ā Heās capable of turning it on, but heās lost me.ā
Jamie MottĀ is the latest rider entrusted with riding Sansom in a bid to extract the best from the gelding.
Even bookmakers have lost patience with Sansom who is rated a $61 chance with TAB, although it is worth remembering Romancer, an opponent on Saturday, won this race last year as a $101 chance.
Front PageĀ heads the market at $3.30 ahead ofĀ ItāSourtimeĀ ($3.50) and RantingĀ ($7.50).