Despite a challenging Spring Carnival campaign with his top contenders, trainer Joseph O’Brien is set to have one final competitor at Sandown next Saturday.
His last horse of the Melbourne spring racing season will be Small Fry, who is entered in the $750,000 Zipping Classic. This 2400-metre Group 2 race marks Small Fry’s final appearance for O’Brien before he transitions to the Phillip and Tommy Stokes stable. O’Brien is hopeful for a victorious send-off.
“He’s going to run in the Zipping, he had a nice run at Geelong obviously and that’s the plan for him,” O’Brien stated.
“He’s owned by OTI, Terry Henderson and the team there, and we love working with the guys and it would be nice if he could finish off the couple of weeks here on good note.”
O’Brien had nine horses in the Werribee quarantine facility during the spring, with five participating in the Melbourne Cup. The highest placement was for Sons And Lovers, which secured fourth position.
Defiantly, once a leading fancy for the Melbourne Cup, finished fourth in his sole start at Saturday’s Group 3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2600m) after failing to qualify for the Cup.
Small Fry’s second-place finish in the Group 3 Geelong Cup (2400m), where he was narrowly defeated by half-a-length by Point Of Law – who subsequently won the Melbourne Cup – represented O’Brien’s best result of the spring.
O’Brien humorously reflected on his choice of the Geelong Cup as a potential Melbourne Cup qualifier for Small Fry, acknowledging it did confirm the horse’s good form.
“We picked the wrong prep,” O’Brien remarked with a chuckle.
“But he seems in good form anyway. We don’t do a lot with him, but he seems in good form and it looks like a nice spot for him.”
Small Fry faces formidable opposition at Sandown, with Ciaron Maher considering entries for Juja Kibo and Middle Earth, both of whom performed well in recent Melbourne Cups, and last year’s Zipping Classic victor, She’s A Hustler, is also slated to compete.
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