\n\t\t\t\t\tBy Mary-Jo Jackson\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Listen<\/p>\n
An in-form Craig Williams added a remarkable eighth Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) to his record on Saturday as he guided the Cliff Brown-trained Sepals (Calyx) to a gritty breakthrough top-flight victory in the $1 million handicap.<\/p>\n
Able to make the 52-kilogram lightweight, Williams was replacing Sepals\u2019 last-start partner Ethan Brown and produced a masterful ride, urging the progressive four-year-old gelding to sit second after a tardy start from barrier 14 of 15.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair kicked clear upon straightening and Sepals \u2013 lining up for just his seventh start off the back of a brilliant first-up win over course and distance last month \u2013 was strong to line, holding off the challenge of Miss Roumbini (Zoustar) to score by 0.8 lengths, with the autumn\u2019s Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Feroce (Super Seth) finishing just 0.3 lengths further away in third.<\/p>\n
Angel Capital (Harry Angel), sent off the $2.90 favourite ahead of Sepals ($3.50), suffered a troubled passage from barrier 12 and flashed home late to take fourth. The winning time of 1m 21.39s was just 0.19s outside of the course record on the Good 3 surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Cliff Brown, a multiple Group 1-winning trainer before he departed for Singapore in 2007, the win was a first elite-level triumph since his return from that now-obsolete jurisdiction four years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win this race, it\u2019s tremendous,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThese are races I grew up with as a kid and that was a long time ago. To win it, it\u2019s very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mornington-based trainer admitted his surprise at seeing Williams take up a forward position early.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite interesting,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came out and said I will just let him find his feet. That went out the window, but that\u2019s what he does, and that\u2019s why you put the best on. He\u2019s done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sepals has a nomination for this year\u2019s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) but Brown said there are no plans in store as to where the gelding would head next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll see what the boys want to do, but this is very special,\u201d the winning trainer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really pleased for everyone. [Wife] Jo and the kids and the staff, they\u2019re amazing. There\u2019s a lot of work that goes into these horses. He\u2019s a special horse and he deserves the attention that he gets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Strengthening his lead as the most successful jockey in the race\u2019s history, Williams was completing a Group 1 double having also landed the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) aboard the impressive Sir Delius (Frankel) 40 minutes earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was therefore the veteran rider\u2019s third Group 1 in the space of a week, adding to victory onboard Mr Brightside (Bullbars) in last Saturday\u2019s Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).<\/p>\n
Williams was impressed with Sepals\u2019 performance, adding there are bigger things in store for the son of late Coolmore sire Calyx (Kingman).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to win Group 1s and he\u2019s done it and that\u2019s not it for this horse. He\u2019s got more to come,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got such a good action, he\u2019s got a great motor, and I was very fortunate to ride him today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bred by Greg Perry and an $80,000 purchase for his trainer at the 2023 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, Sepals is the first foal and first winner out of Casino Prince (Flying Spur) mare What\u2019s New, who was prepared by Brown to become Singapore\u2019s Champion Four-Year-Old and Older Female in 2019.<\/p>\n
His fourth dam is Good Faith (Straight Strike), the dam of two stakes winners and herself a winner of the Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) who was named the top filly on the 1996-97 Australasian Two-Year-Old Classification.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In winning the Sir Rupert Clarke, Sepals\u00a0 (4 g Calyx \u2013 What\u2019s New by Casino Prince) became the first Group 1 winner for Coolmore\u2019s ill-fated Calyx, who died aged nine due to an acute foot injury in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mary-Jo Jackson Listen An in-form Craig Williams added a remarkable eighth Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-149598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}