Sacred Oration stands out

Juvenile races are often confusing as these young horses can improve significantly from one race to the next.

That makes the Listed East Cape Nursery over 1200m at Fairview on Friday particularly tricky although on form, one runner does stand out from the rest of the pack.

Sacred Oration has won both of his starts, the first over 800m and then over 1000m. Many of the opposition have raced against the son of Oratorio and were decisively beaten by the Grant Paddock-trained runner. As they meet again at level weights Sacred Oration should have the beating of Bright Flame, Desert Chief, Fort Winter, Golden Shamrock and Gone Not Forgotten.

Desert Chief was beaten by one length and Gone Not Forgotten by 1.75 lengths. They got the closest to Sacred Oration in that last race over 1000m but two things could help them turn the result around. The first is natural improvement and the second is the additional 200m.

Desert Chief was beaten a neck by Gone Not Forgotten on debut and followed up with his loss to Sacred Oration. He also reversed the form line with Gone Not Forgotten, finishing 0.75 lengths ahead of him on that occasion. His next start was over 1200m and this time Sharon Kotzen’s charge beat Fort Winter by a neck so this son of Main Aim had improved with each run.

Another threat to Sacred Oration could come from Seattle Flame. He won on debut over 1000m in a faster time than that produced by Sacred Oration and further improvement could be expected. Alan Greeff’s charge went off a 14-10 favourite that day so he was not winning out of turn.

Greg Cheyne takes the ride.

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