October
JunePenalty!
"The whole thing is preposterous," said John O’Shea on Sunday May 27 of the prospect that Sea Siren might get penalised 1.5kg to 54kg for the Stradbroke.
"They are compromising the quality of the race and the Pattern Committee may have to look at its Group 1 status. The up-and-coming horses cannot get into the race."
Somehow I think there are a few Group 1 races around Australia the Pattern Committee might want to have a look at before the $1 million Stradbroke Handicap.
The Stradbroke is, as the name suggests, a handicap. The handicapper’s aim is that they all to hit the line together, not that the best horse wins.
"It is like carrying 58kg if you’re an old gelding. Please," said O’Shea — channelling Richie Callander for a moment — of the 54kg for his three-year-old filly. Well, if you had an old gelding who’d never been unplaced and had won five of his seven starts including Group 1 sprints at his past two, wouldn’t you nearly be expecting 58kg?
Remarkably, once the 1.5kg penalty was announced, O’Shea and owner Keith Biggs did not immediately pull the pin on Sea Siren’s Stradbroke campaign. Perhaps she could win with that unfair impost after all.
The connections’ confidence may have been boosted by recent memories of Hay List doing the "impossible" and winning the Newmarket under the unfair and unreasonable weight of 58.5kg.
Is it possible that handicappers know more about handicapping than trainers and owners? Surely not.
Castlemaine (Vic)