Dual Group One winner Solzhenitsyn will have to create a weight-carrying record if he is to return to the winner’s circle in the Group Three BRC Sprint at Doomben on Saturday.
Solzhenitsyn is on the comeback trail after a throat operation and ran an encouraging sixth to Temple Of Boom in the Group Two Victory Stakes (1200m) in his return on April 26.
Solzhenitsyn winning the David Jones NBCF Toorak Handicap at Caulfield - photo by Race Horse Photos Australia
Trainer Rob Heathcote was happy with the run as Solzhenitsyn finished beside Famous Seamus who has since won the Group One BTC Cup.
However, Solzhenitsyn has been given no favours in Saturday’s 1350m race.
He has been lumped with 61kg and has drawn the outside barrier in a field reduced to 15 with the early scratching of the Chris Waller-trained Masthead.
The maximum top weight for the race is 61kg and as the winner of two Toorak Handicaps it was perhaps not surprising Solzhenitsyn was given it.
“He is a million to one to win from out there with that weight,” Heathcote said.
“But he has to run because he needs another hit-out under his belt for the Doomben 10,000 on Saturday week and then hopefully the Stradbroke two weeks later.”
Heathcote said Solzhenitsyn had been coming along nicely since his last run but, as with all horses who undergo throat operations, he stressed that race day would be telling.
A check of the record books shows just how tough Solzhenitsyn’s job is on Saturday.
The only horse to have carried more than 61kg to win any feature race in Brisbane in the past 60 years was the champion Tulloch who lumped 9st 12lb (62.5kg) to win the 1961 Brisbane Cup.
The mighty sprinter Hareeba carried 60kg to win the 1996 QTC Cup while top class gallopers Triton and Tontonan each carried 59.5kg to win the BTC Cup when it was a handicap.
The heaviest weight carried to victory in the BRC Sprint was 59kg by both True Glo in 2004 and Chief De Beers six years earlier.
Meanwhile, trainer Kelso Wood is confident his two BRC Sprint runners Someday and Benny’s Buttons will race well and press on to the Stradbroke Handicap on June 7.
Someday won a Doomben trial on Tuesday and Benny’s Buttons has worked well since his last-start third in the Prime Minister’s Cup at the Gold Coast on May 3.
