The world’s equal highest-rated sprinter, Lankan Rupee, has been given a 58.5kg weight to shoulder after the handicap weights were released for next Saturday’s $1 million Group 1 Newmarket Handicap over 1200m at Flemington.
The race looks set to be one of the most competitive in years with numerous chances by emerging sprinters and established sprinters.
Lankan Rupee’s weight isn’t a record impost, but history is against the gelding. Just one other sprinter in the last 50 years has won the Newmarket with 58.5kg – Hay List, who won with 58.5kg in 2012 without the opposition of best ever sprinter Black Caviar.
Black Caviar herself won the race in 2011 the year before with 58kg, which at the time, equated to 60kg given the mares and fillies allowance of 2kgs.
Group 1 Darley Classic (1200m) winner Terravista has been allocated 56.5kg in the Newmarket, a useful 2kg break on Rupee. However, history is also against Terravista, seeking to become the first horse for 98 years to win the Newmarket first-up.
The Mick Price-trained Lankan Rupee rises two kilograms from his 2014 Newmarket win, with the task at hand a tough one given the burgeoning ranks of talented sprinters lining up to best him.
Three-year-old Brazen Beau, to be partnered by perhaps the world’s best jockey in Joao ‘Magicman’ Moreira, was safely beaten by Lankan Rupee at weight-for-age in the Lightning Stakes, with the youngster given just 52kg under the handicap conditions.
“It’s not going to be easy for Lankan Rupee to win back-to-back Newmarkets as you’ve got to turn some significant tables on his rivals,” Racing Victoria senior handicapper Neil Jennings told Racing Victoria.
“Take for instance Terravista (56.5kg in Newmarket) who when they last met beat Lankan Rupee by a length and on Saturday week meets him two kilograms better.
“And then you come up to a horse like Chautauqua who has 55.5kg in the Newmarket but beat Lankan Rupee when they last met in the Darley Classic by three-quarters of a length and now meets the horse three kilograms better on weights.
“I’ve got no doubt that he (Lankan Rupee) is going to face a daunting challenge. If he comes out and wins this race he deserves to be labelled as the world’s best sprinter outright.
“We know how good a horse he is down the straight, but he has a mighty challenge ahead of him.”
Jennings further noted that although Lankan Rupee and Terravista share an international rating of 123, that mark is based on peaks rather than a profile across a career.
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