Finche’s attempt at a first autumn campaign in this country is firmly on track with the Australian Cup hopeful entered to jumpout at Flemington on Friday.
The Frankel import has finished top-10 in two Melbourne Cup starts as well as been two-times Group 1 placed, but all of those performances have come in the spring with Finche sidelined for the first few months of 2019 and 2020.
“He hasn’t raced in the autumn in Australia remarkably,” part-owner Brae Sokolski explained on Thursday.
“For the past two autumn carnivals he had some little niggles but this time they’ve got him cherry ripe and I think the Australian Cup (worth $1.5 million at Flemington on March 6) looks the race for him.
“I don’t think any of the three big guns – Verry Elleegant, Sir Dragonet or Russian Camelot – are going towards it so if you look at his Turnbull runs over the same course, it’s a good race for him.”
In the 2019 Turnbull Stakes over the Australian Cup course of 2000 metres at Flemington, Finche was nosed out by Kings Will Dream before last spring suffering a wide trip but still finishing third to Verry Elleegant and Toffee Tongue.
Sokolski said the chestnut seven-year-old, who was a Group 3 winner in France as a young horse and has an intriguing galloping style, was popular with fans despite having won just one race in this country in 11 starts.
“He hasn’t won a Group 1 race but he’s got a bit of a cult following because he’s such a lovely horse and a genuine horse,” Sokolski said.
Sokolski also confirmed that Caulfield Cup winner Verry Elleegant was unlikely to chase March’s $5 million All-Star Mile at The Valley despite being among the 83 final nominations.
“Chris (Waller) put her in the race because you never know, but at the moment the intention is to keep her up in Sydney and take a similar path we did last autumn through the Apollo, the Ranvet, Tancred and Queen Elizabeth.”
– racing.com
