Three-year-olds have an enviable record in the Adelaide Cup
winning routinely since the race’s inception. Horses the calibre of Rain Lover, Just
a Dash and Subzero won the Adelaide Cup as three-year-olds before going on to win
Melbourne Cups.
Should Derby winner Pantani hope to join this illustrious
trio he will have to set a modern day weight carrying record. A late entry, Pantani was
allotted 53 kilograms compared to the 50 kilograms of Derby runner up Silver Baron.
The most weight carried to victory by a three year old
since metric conversion was the 51.5 kilograms of Subzero.
Queried by former Cup winning jockey John Letts at the
recent SAJC press conference, stable foreman for Robbie Laing, Matthew Upton, expressed
little concern over the weight.
The stable has no doubt that Pantani will run out the 3200
metres of the Cup, they had, in fact, been more concerned with dropping the horse back
from the 2800 metres of the VRC St. Leger to the Derby distance (2500 metres).
After his Derby win Pantani returned to Laing’s Sutton
Grange training complex, a set-up credited with the improvement in Pantani. Prior to the
move to the country complex Upton said that the NZ$52,500 purchase from the New Zealand
Premier Sale was starting to look like an expensive horse.
 Mentally immature the
horse-friendly environment at Sutton Grange helped Pantani "turn the corner". It
is old news now that the AJC Derby winner Don Eduardo followed Pantani into the sale ring
in New Zealand.
Meanwhile Silver Baron would appear the better weighted of
the two given the nose margin in the Derby. Adelaide foreman for John Hawkes, David
Pannell said Silver Baron would get through the wet conditions, assisted by his
lightweight.
Pannell added that Silver Baron too, although strengthening
up since coming to Adelaide, was an immature horse, pointing out that in the Derby he
travelled the length of the Morphettville straight on one rein. Brendan Fenech replaces
Darren Gauci, and Pannell noted that although Silver Baron responded more to hands and
heels riding in the Derby when inclined to lay in, Fenech would more than likely be
instructed to ride with the whip in his left hand.
He also went on to say that Fenech is an improving jockey
and is riding the stable’s horses the way Hawkes wants them to be ridden.
Pantani pic - Jenny Barnes. |
