Sayed in hunt for Metropolitan berth

Friday 18 August 2017, 1:51pm

Former French gelding Sayed has a chance to measure up for The Metropolitan with an imposing audition at Randwick.

Chris Waller took over training the five-year-old in June last year and after an uninspiring initial preparation in Sydney, Sayed has thrived since being gelded.

Four wins and two seconds so far this campaign indicate he is on the right treack and on Saturday the stayer returns from a freshen-up to tackle the Benchmark 89 (2400m) as the $1.55 favourite with the TAB.

"His whole prep has been super," Waller said.

"The horse is heading in the right direction to be taking on bigger races. You've got to respect 61 kilos over 2400. It's not easy but he's a superior stayer.

Sayed has top weight but has Hugh Bowman on board from barrier one as he bids to push his claims for a start in the Group One Metropolitan at Randwick on September 30.

"This preparation he's gone from strength to strength and if he's going to be a Metropolitan contender, then regardless of the weight he should be very hard to beat," Waller said.

Waller also has Vassal and Four Carat, who also started their racing lives in France, lining up in the race.

He said he hoped Vassal ($8.50) would benefit from blinkers aftr giving away big starts.

"He needs to find a bit more aggression," Waller said.

"If we can get him racing four of five lengths from the leader he gives himself a chance."

Waller gives himself a chance at the trifecta with Four Carat ($18).

"He's rock-hard fit now," he said. "No excuses, it's a small field. All three should be running in the first three."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »