Zipping Classic winner Au Revoir will be sent to the spelling paddock and miss out on competing at the rich International Race Day at Hong Kong in December.
French stayer Au Revoir will now be spelled after winning the Zipping Classic at Sandown. Photo by Sarah Ebbett.
Au Revoir is raced by OTI Management and director Terry Henderson had thoughts of running the French stayer in the Group 1 HK$16.5m Longines Hong Kong Vase (2400m) at Sha Tin on December 14.
But after talking with French trainer Andrea Fabre after Au Revoir won the Group 2 $350,000 Deadly Design Zipping Classic (2400m) at Sandown last Saturday, it was decided to go to the paddock before being transferred to Peter Moody at Caulfield to prepare for the Autumn.
“Andre was quite chuffed about winning a race in Australia, but he thinks the horse has done enough,” Henderson told Racing Network.
“He didn’t think it was wise to go to Hong Kong.”
Au Revoir has performed creditably at his three runs over the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival after arriving from France with three wins on his record.
At his first start in Melbourne Au Revoir led before finishing third to Prince Of Penzance in the Group 2 $250,000 Racing.com Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) at Moonee Valley on October 25 then ran eighth to German stayer Protectionist in the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 4 before his Zipping Classic win.
Moody has had plenty of success with OTI Racing including a win with Brambles in the 2012 Group 1 $500,000 Channel Seven Queensland Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm and in particular with European import Manighar.
The leading Melbourne trainer took over the training of Manighar after the grey ran fifth to Dunaden in the 2011 Melbourne Cup and then second to American in the Zipping Classic twelve days later and turned the dour stayer into a triple Group 1 weight for age winner.
During the Autumn of 2012 Manighar was able to score a hat trick of Group 1 wins by taking out the $1m Dubai Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington and the $400,000 Ranvet Stakes (2000m) and the $2.25m The BMW (2400m) at Rosehill.
And Henderson is hoping for a similar result with Au Revoir.
“We’ll look to do what we did with Manighar — give him a light let-up then go into the autumn,” Henderson said.
“The aim is to get him settled in Australia first and he will have a very light autumn and hopefully by the time spring comes around he will be ready to go again.”
