Abashiri looks unlikely for Victory Moon Stakes

Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup favourite Abashiri will probably not be using the Victory Moon Stakes as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1 race on 25 November because, according to his trainer Mike Azzie, the weights are unfair.

Abashiri has been given top weight of 62kg in terms of the conditions. “He got an extra 2kg penalty because he won a Grade 1 race within 18 months of the weights being published on Wednesday,” said Azzie.

“His last Grade 1 win was in the SA Derby on Champions Day, 30 April last year, and the framing of the weights fell just a week before the cut-off.

“The conditions don’t make any sense at all,” he said. “Surely it would be fairer if they applied to the date of the race, which is sometime in mid-November, rather than the date of the framing of the weights?

“And the way the conditions are written leaves a loophole if anybody wants to challenge them.”

The Victory Moon Stakes is a fixed-weight race based on bands of merit ratings with additional penalties for major-race winners “in the period 18 months prior to the issuing of weights for this race” – 2kg for Grade 1 races and 1kg for Grade 1 races restricted to fillies and mares and winners of Grade 2 races.

The weights for this year’s renewal of the race were announced last Wednesday, 25 October. Supplementary entries close a week later, on Wednesday 1 November.

Many people understand the conditions to be that a horse supplemented on 1 November – one day after the 18-month period from the day the 2016 SA Derby and Champions Challenge were run concludes – would not receive the Grade 1 penalty.

According to chief handicapper Roger Smith that is not true because the conditions would be applied retrospectively.

“Anyway,” said Azzie, “I won’t be subjecting Abashiri to that weight just 18 days before the Summer Cup. Instead he’ll have a grass gallop, which I believe will be just as good as a run, if not better because it’ll be safer.”

Abashiri is the 15-2 favourite for the Summer Cup and Azzie concludes: “He is in exceptional order. I’m very happy with him. He’ll be spot-on for the Summer Cup.”