3 minute read

We’ve found one to follow from Morphettville on Saturday.

Race 8: Sghirripa 

Saturday's Listed W H Wyle Handicap lived up to all the pre-race hype, and some.

Touted earlier in the week as possibly the finest edition of the 1100m contest, it was race favourite Press Down who got the verdict, downing Marble Nine by just under a length (0.9L), with top weight Sghirripa rounding out the placings (1.5L).

While I suspect the form out of the race to stick up solidly wherever it reaches, it's the third horse in particular I'm keen to follow up on.

Already a star of the South Australian sprinting landscape, Sghirripa picked straight back up from where he left off his career best preparation last time in.

Lugging the hefty weight of 61kgs, Sghirripa matched his career peak of 115 on the Racing and Sports scale, the same rating the five-year-old produced when scoring dominantly in the Group 3 Standish earlier in the year.

Sghirripa's performance splits the two previous highest ratings to come out of the race, now sitting wedged between colt hero Kemalpasa's ratings of 114 & 116.

Daring to dream of an Everest slot, the Shane & Cassie Oxlade stable may redirect their ambitions closer to home and should perhaps look to the set-ups of the above-mentioned and much beloved Kemal(pasa). While encouraged to remain optimistic, races like the Gilgai Stakes, Caulfield Sprint, and The Damien Oliver look his for the taking.