Sydney Cup Rescheduled

The G1 Schweppes Sydney Cup has been rescheduled for Apr. 22 and will form the centre-piece of a meeting originally scheduled for Warwick Farm but now transferred to Randwick. Supplementary entries will be taken in addition to those runners from the original void race up to a field of 14. Last Saturday's race was called off at halfway when Almoonqith (Dynaformer) fatally broke down and Who Shot Thebarman (NZ) (Yamanin Vital {NZ}) lost his rider but several of the jockeys missed the steward's signals and rode the full 3200m race, including Corey Brown who passed the post first on Godolphin's Polarisation (GB) (Echo Of Light {GB}). Both officials and trainers were keen to salvage the race with Australian Turf Club chief executive Darren Pearce commenting, “We wanted to give all entrants a chance to compete for the A$2 million and we believe April 22 strikes a balance between varying views of owners and trainers, whilst achieving a competitive field size for punters and racegoers.”

Any supplementary entries will be weighted by the Racing NSW handicapping panel with a limit of 51.5kg. The supplementary entries will close at noon Apr. 17 with acceptances due by Apr. 19 at 9 a.m. Compensation is also available for those original participants who do not take part in the rescheduled event. A A$15,000 payment will be made to connections of horses that faced the starter on Saturday and do not start Apr. 22 while a A$4,000 payment will be made in relation to horses that faced the starter in the no-race and line up on Saturday week.