Trainer John O’Hara is only worried about one thing for Castor in this Friday’s $100,000 Open Benchmark 83 race over 1700m – his topweight.
The Greenwood Lake five-year-old shoulders the top impost of 59kgs and with his apprentice jockey Troy See claiming only one kilo since he brought up his 80th win aboard Golden Kingdom last Monday, the 58kgs to be carried still weighs on O’Hara’s mind.
The last time Castor scored with a bit of lead on his back was at his last win, which came in a Benchmark 83 race over 1700m. He was allotted 59kgs which were shaven down to 57kgs courtesy of See’s then two-kilo allowance.
Castor (Troy See) at his last win on December 2, 2016, defeating Big Brother (Nooresh Juglall) in a 1700m race.
All his other six wins - bar his maiden win when he was a two-year-old running in weight-for-age races - saw Castor carrying 56kgs or less. At his last start, he nearly sprang an upset in the Group 3 New Year Cup (1900m) with only 50kgs on his back, only to be bettered late by Guru-Guru (first) and another recent Group winner in Sunday’s Group 3 Fortune Bowl (1600m) winner Big Brother (second).
“He’s of normal build, but for some reason, he’s not very good at carrying weights,” said O’Hara.
“And he’s giving a lot of weight all round on Friday, and to some good horses like Robin Hood, Squire Osbaldeston and Casing Royal. With Troy now claiming only one kilo, that doesn’t help, but shaving off one kilo is better than nothing.
“Other than that, his form is good and I’m happy with his work.”
Not too long ago, the main concern about Castor was not weight-related, though, but more distance-related.
Four starts back, a few eyebrows were raised when the IB Racing Stable-owned gelding was suddenly stepped up from sprint races to 1700m with no transition. It was seen as a mad gamble, but his smashing win under See proved it was a well-calculated risk after all.
“I always felt he was looking for more ground from the way he was running. He didn’t have that early speed anymore and was closing in late,” said O’Hara.
“And after he won (over 1700m), he kept up that trend, and won again (over 1700m), and even nearly won the New Year Cup. He’s back in distance to 1700m this time, but I think 1900m suited him as well.”
O’Hara has also entered Golden Diamond in Friday’s race, but has no other entries in the other eight races.
After a slow start to the new season, the Singaporean handler seems to have hit his straps since Big Guardian opened his account on January 20. At the recent double-barrelled Chinese New Year weekend, he saddled up a training treble courtesy of Constance’s Spirit (Sunday) and Golden Kingdom and Gallant Heights (Monday), the latter two also handing See his first two wins for the new season.
While O’Hara can clock in late on Friday night, he will be busier with three runners on Sunday, Desert Fox (Race 3), Secret Squirrel (Race 4) and Satellite Boy (Race 11), but he is clearly pinning his main hopes on Castor to help his good run continue.
“We had a quiet start but it’s good we got three winners over the weekend,” said multiple-champion trainer Ivan Allan’s cousin and former right-hand man.
“I’ve got three runners on Sunday, but I’m not expecting much. Satellite Boy won a trial by more than eight lengths last week (Thursday), but that’s what he does.
“He’s won a trial like this before - last year (July 14), but he did not bring that form to the races, and I’m afraid he may do the same thing this week. Besides the track was riding fast on that day at the trials (January 26) – he scored the third fastest time on 1min 0.92 second.
“I wouldn’t get too carried away, but I hope he can run a good race, nonetheless.”
