Septimus definite for Cup

[magic_idol]

by Mike Hedge : 9/16/2008 .


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Connections of Irish St Leger winner Septimus have confirmed the horse will travel to Australia for the Melbourne Cup after he escaped without a Cup penalty.

Septimus

Trainer Aidan O’Brien confirmed the plans after assessing the horse following his 13-length win at The Curragh.
He expects to iron out quarantine issues with Australian authorities later this week.
The five-year-old, the winner of his past four starts is the ruling favourite for Australia’s biggest race, bookmakers trimming him again yesterday with the news that he would be on the plane.
"Septimus seems to be fine and we just have the quarantine issue to address, and I hope to find out about that early next week," O'Brien said.
"The plan is to look at the Melbourne Cup. We'd love to go."
Racing Victoria handicapper Greg Carpenter declined to re-handicap Septimus, saying the level of the opposition he defeated in Ireland on Saturday was so modest he could not use his discretion to add to the 58.5kg originally allotted him.
It is expected that Septimus will be accompanied on the trip by stablemates Honolulu and Alessandro Volta. Honolulu received a 1kg penalty for his Doncaster Cup win last Friday taking his weight to 54.5kg.
While Septimus gave O’Brien a trouble-free 19th Group One win of the year in the St Leger, the 20th proved more difficult to capture at The Curragh on Sunday.
The latest addition to the Ballydoyle list was Mastercraftsman who overcame a bog track to win the G1 National Stakes.
Mastercraftsman scored by a short head from the Mark Johnston-trained Shaweel, the victory prompting bookmakers to list O’Brien as 1-5 chance to break the record for Group One wins in a single season.
The world-best mark was set by American trainer Bobby Frankel at 25.
The National Stakes was the final Group One of the Irish racing season.
In other developments at Ballydoyle, the stable’s top-rated galloper Duke Of Marmalade is being tipped to appear at Britain’s newest racecourse for his final Breeders’ Cup tune-up run later this month.
O’Brien is yet to decide whether Duke Of Marmalade runs in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe or a relatively minor event at the newly-opened Great Leighs track in England.
The reasoning is that Duke Of Marmalade, who has won five Group 1s in a row, might benefit from the experience on the all-weather track at Great Leighs which is similar to the surface at Santa Anita, venue for Ocotber’s Breeders’ Cup series.
"I am not ruling him out of the Arc, but we want to run him at the Breeders' Cup with possibly another run in between," said O'Brien.