By Ray Hickson
Wagga Cup winner Inverloch will need to set a weight carrying record if he’s to win the Listed $150,000 XXXX Winter Cup (2400m) at Rosehill on Saturday but the 60kg impost is not the only obstacle he faces.
However, it’s not impossible to carry weight and win the staying feature – last year’s hero Wu Gok set a new mark when he carried 59.5kg to victory in turn eclipsing Destiny’s Kiss’s 58.5kg record from a year earlier.
But in all bar one of his seven Australian wins Inverloch has led, he’s yet to win beyond 2000m in this country and he has the outside barrier for jockey Tommy Berry to navigate as well.
Co-trainer Trent Busuttin said weight isn’t his big concern with the seven-year-old, it’s how the race is run that’s key.
“He’s obviously got to carry plenty of weight but he has earned it and I’m sure he will run well,’’ Busuttin said.
“He doesn’t know how to run a bad race. Hopefully we can dictate the race, sometimes it works out for you on a front runner and sometimes it doesn’t.
Inverloch wins the Wagga Cup on May 7
“I think a mile and a half is the absolute top of his range. He won a 2900m race in England but it was a maiden, I think 2000m is his pet distance but the race is there and he needs to race.”
Inverloch has raced six times at 2400m for two second placings in the Listed Mornington Cup and an open handicap at Caulfield in March and April 2020.
It was a masterful front running ride from Mathew Cahill to win the Wagga Cup (2000m) on May 7, where Inverloch was a drifting $31 chance, and the form from the race has certainly stacked up.
Dead-heating runners up Spirit Ridge and Yonkers both scored city wins at their next starts with the former taking out last week’s Group 3 Premier’s Cup in Brisbane.
That race was in Busuttin’s planning for Inverloch but he didn’t scope well after his gallop leading into the race and with the benefit of hindsight said missing the race was a plus.
“It was probably a blessing in disguise,’’ he said.
“He’s a horse that sits up on the speed and it was a brutal old pace in that race so I think it worked out for the better.’’
Any rain in the lead up to the Winter Cup would suit Busuttin with Inverloch, $11 with TAB on Wednesday.
All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's meeting at Rosehill