Coral Eclipse Stakes 2011 at Sandown - Neil Callan all praise for Sri Putra against So You Think
The son of Oasis Dream, Sri Putra, is said to improve with every run and jockey, Neil Callan, thinks highly of his five-year old bay horse ahead of the Coral Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.
Last year in the Coral Eclipse Stakes, Sri Putra was the runner-up behind Sir Henry Cecil’s Twice Over. This time around Sri Putra will be up against the likes of hot favourite, So You Think, and, Workforce, joined by Snow Fairy.
It’s a tall order but jockey Neil Callan believes that the horse is in flying form and he is getting better with each run.
Sri Putra met So You Think recently in the Royal Ascot meet, where both horses battled it out for the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes. So You Think finished second with Sri Putra following and the distance between the two was six lengths.
So, realistically Sri Putra has to find six more lengths to defeat favourite, So You Think. But Sri Putra’s connections believe that he takes time to get going and the race on 2 July could be coming at the right time.
It is always good to know your horse well and when jockey, Neil Callan, talked about Sri Putra it seemed he had all the right information about the horse and confidence looked sky high ahead of the race.
Callan mentioned the five-year old’s performance last year and that Sri Putra is more of a momentum horse, the more he runs the more he opens up to future races with longer strides, and, almost an unbeatable desire to win.
Sri Putra is backed at 40-to-1 for the Coral Eclipse Stakes, despite his half a length second place finish last year. Like So You Think and Workforce, stats don’t seem to matter to Callan going into the race and he is filled with positivity, a crucial pre-race
ingredient.
Callan further said that the field will be filled with horses, who can beat Sri Putra at any given day, but that is where, technique, strategy, figuring out chinks in armour, and working out a way to beat these highly backed horses comes into racing.
For now Sri Putra’s connections look highly optimistic and strong-minded before the race, but realistically taking on So You Think, Workforce, and, Snow Fairy in one race is definitely a tall order but whoever wants bigger odds should bet on last year’s
runner-up, and, who knows what splendors await Roger Varian’s trained horse.
Coral Eclipse Stakes will commence on 2 July and the staff has been working vigorously on the track, watering it to present a balanced good-to-firm track for the race.
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