It is rare these days to find a horse being asked to carry 64.5kg in a race at Flemington.
But that is what the Robbie Laing-trained El Soleado has in the VRC Country Race Sprint (1200m) on Saturday, although that weight is being offset by the 3kg claim of Sheridan Clarke.
Laing is old-school and remembers growing up when horses like Alcatraz and Samson were carrying huge weights in races at his favourite tracks like Sandown and Caulfield.
El Soleado is returning to racing having undergone tieback surgery on a throat condition but has pleased Laing in his three jump-outs, his most recent when successful at Cranbourne on May 26.
“He’s got a run somewhere,” Laing said.
“It’s a beautiful track and Sheridan Clarke is going to claim 3 kilos off him, so he comes in with 61-½ kilos and it’s not like the bottom weights have 48 kilos like they used to years ago when there were massive differences from the top to the bottom weight.”
A search through the Racing And Sports data base, the most recent horse to have been asked to carry more than 64.5kg in a flat race at Flemington was Paris Lane in a Welter in February 1996, when he was allotted 68.5kg and was ridden by a then 2.5kg claiming apprentice Craig Williams.
El Soleado hasn’t raced since finishing ninth at Sandown last September after which it was discovered the gelding had a throat ailment.
The rising six-year-old had a consistent summer – autumn campaign in 2024 and Laing was looking forward to last year’s spring with El Soleado.
“His throat went all of a sudden,” Laing said.
“He had two runs on soft ground in Listed grade, and we were happy with him and then we took him to Sandown and backed him.
“Patrick Moloney rode him and said he didn’t run on and made a hell of a noise.
“They scoped him, he was perfect, so we galloped him, he made a noise, then next time we galloped we put a dynamic scope on him.
“Halfway through the gallop, he couldn’t breathe, so that’s when we decided to send him off for surgery and give him a good break.”
Having thought El Soleado would stretch out to 2400m, now Laing is thinking 1600m to 2000m might be more the gelding’s trip.
“His galloping ability, his trials have been super, his action is good, he looks super,” Laing said.
“He might be a Toorak Handicap horse, or there may be a nice 1800-metre race or one over 2000 metres over the Carnival that may be his goal.
“But we’ll keep him rolling along slowly after he runs on Saturday.”
