A 2014 Spring Carnival plan is already in the making for import Midsummer Sun and a win in the Group 2 $350,000 Deadly Design Zipping Classic (2400m) at Caulfield on Saturday would kick start the process for trainer Sam Kavanagh.
Sam Kavanagh is looking for bold showing from Midsummer Sun in Zipping Classic. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Kavanagh has his sights set on a Caulfield – Melbourne Cup campaign next year and a win over the 2400m at Group 2 level would qualify Midsummer Sun for the ballot clauses for the Group 1 $2.5m BMW Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield and the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington.
”When we bought him it was as a cups type of horse,” Kavanagh told The Sydney Morning Herald.
”We have had to be patient and if he can win on Saturday, it would pass the ballot clauses for the Caulfield and Melbourne cups next year.
”It would also lift his rating to a point that he would be pretty assured of a start in the Caulfield Cup. We still have to find out whether he is up to that class but he is very talented and early in his career he was Derby favourite in England.
”We know his best form is the Melbourne way of going. He has had nine starts that direction and all five wins have come anticlockwise.”
Kavanagh has progressed slowly with Midsummer Sun since the Monsun gelding arrived in Australia and has been successful twice in the Autumn this year with a win over 1600m at Morphettville in April and a win over 2000m at Caulfield in May.
Midsummer Sun has shown gradual improvement and Kavanagh said that he was unlucky not to have won last start when second to Salon Soldier in the Listed $150,000 Visit Victoria Plate (1800m) at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day.
Third placegetter, English visitor Mull Of Killough, subsequently came out and finished fourth to Boban, beaten half a length, in the Group 1 $1m Emirates Stakes (1600m) at Flemington last Saturday, pointing to a strong form line.
”We rode him cold that day and with a bit of luck I think he could have beaten Salon Soldier,” Kavanagh said.
”The form out of the race was franked by Mull Of Killough in the Emirates”
Midsummer Sun is marked as $10 in the Zipping Classic market order which has Precedence ($3.50) and Sertorius ($3.70) battling it out for favouritism.
The Gai Waterhouse trained Queenstown is also in the market at $5 with Mike Kent’s Epingle under double figures at $9.
TheZipping Classic looks a rematch between Precedence and Sertorius after the two stayers crossed the line together in the Group 3 $300,000 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2600m) at Flemington last Saturday with Precedence getting the judge’s nod in a head bobbing finish.
But Kavanagh doesn’t regard it as a two horse race and is giving Midsummer Sun a great chance of causing an upset.
“He will enjoy getting to 2400m and, even though it is weight-for-age, he will run a great race,’ Kavanagh said.
