Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington – 8 November 2008

Apache Cat is odds on favourite to win the $500,000 Group 1 Patinack Farm Classic over 1200 metres. There are 11 runners in the standard weight-for-age race and this year, for the first time, it is a leg of the 2008 Global Sprint Challenge.

Apache Cat is $1.80 in the early market. He hasn’t started since May when he finished his autumn campaign with five consecutive Group 1 wins in the Lightning Stakes, followed by the Australia Stakes, the TJ Smith Stakes, the BTC Cup and the Doomben 10,000. He is a first-up specialist with five wins and two places from his eight first-up starts, and has drawn barrier 11.

Corey Brown will be riding Apache Cat after partnering him in his five Group 1 wins in the autumn. Following Saturday’s run Apache Cat will go into quarantine and then head to Hong Kong in early December in preparation for the Group 1 Hong Kong International Sprint over 1200 metres at Sha Tin on December 14. This is the final leg of the Global Sprint Challenge where he will meet some of the world’s best sprinters, including Sacred Kingdom. He will then return to Australia and prepare for the early autumn feature races.

Only two other horses in the field are under double figures, and they are Sunburnt Land at $5 and Triple Honour at $6.50. Sunburnt Land is the in-form horse who finished his autumn campaign with back-to-back wins and this spring has had two wins and an unlucky third from his three starts. Last week in the Salinger he couldn’t get out until too late, but finished the race hard.

Triple Honour won this years Doncaster, and resumed in the spring with a win in the Premiere over 1200 metres and then raced twice over 1600 metres. He was been freshened up for six weeks to go back to the 1200 metre distance.

Bel Mer, the only mare in the field, is also in-form with two good seconds at her last two starts. She is currently priced at $17, while the remaining runners are all over $20.

by Jo Jackson