Jockey Craig Newitt will stick with his Melbourne Cup mount Sertorius in the Listed $150,000 Sandown Cup (3200m) at Sandown on Saturday before he heads to Singapore.
Craig Newitt is booked to ride Sertorius in the Sandown Cup at Sandown. Photo by Adrienne Bicknell.
Sertorius is one of twenty-two horses nominated for the Sandown Cup with last Saturday’s Queen’s Cup winner Dandino also among the nominations.
Sertorius was beaten less than five lengths when twelfth to Prince Of Penzance in the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington last Tuesday, but Newitt said that the Jamie Edwards trained gelding should have finished closer.
Newitt said in the early stages of the Melbourne Cup he was outside of Prince Of Penzance but then got shuffled back through the field and was near last when the field headed for home.
“I was outside the winner early and by the time we got to the mile (1600m) I was seven lengths off it,” Newitt told AAP.
“I was near last on the corner and he’s ended up running twelfth.
“He ran out of his skin and if he didn’t get shuffled out of it and was able to hold his spot I think he would have run top six.”
Newitt is hoping the Sandown Cup is run early in the day so he will have plenty of time to catch his seven o’clock plane on Saturday night to Singapore.
Leading Singapore trainer Michael Freedman has booked Newitt to ride A La Victory in the Group 1 S$1.35m Longines Singapore Gold Cup (2200m) at Kranji in Singapore on Sunday.
Newitt is no stranger to riding in Singapore after spending six month there from December last year until May and has also ridden in the last three Singapore Gold Cups for a fourth on Tenzing in 2012, a third on Dragonfly in 2013 and a sixth on Goodman last year.
Newitt has only ridden twelve metropolitan winners this season in Melbourne but was back in the limelight when he partnered the Mick Price trained Tarzino to win the Group 1 $1.5m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington on October 31.
A second Melbourne Cup Carnival Group 1 win was then only a whisker away when Newitt on board Politeness flashed home for a close second to Turn Me Loose in the Group 1 $1m Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington last Saturday.
