Circle work

Decircles followed in the footsteps of stablemate Adamantium with victory at Flemington yesterday and he will given the chance to further emulate his fellow Danny O’Brien-trained gelding on New Year’s Day.

The five-year-old booked his spot in Victoria’s premier summer sprint – the Standish Handicap – with his win in the $80,000 ISIS Handicap.

Adamantium won the 1200m event before going on to win this year’s $150,000 Group 3 Standish and O’Brien said that was the obvious progression for Decircles.

“That’s his profile, he’s a summer sort of horse,” O’Brien said. “The Standish is on New Year’s Day, Adamantium came out of this race and won the Standish, so we might give him his chance. He’s very good down the straight.”

Decircles proved too speedy for his rivals to lead most of the way in the ISIS Handicap.

The son of Encosta de Lago, who was ridden by Glen Boss, showed the benefit of lead-up runs at Cranbourne and Caulfield to make it two Flemington wins from his past four starts following an Anzac Day success over 1200m.

“He just got run off his feet his first couple back at 1000 and 1100 around the bends, but down the straight, (over) 1200 off a softer tempo, he controlled it and was never going to lose,” O’Brien said.

Decircles, the $2.90 favourite, scored by three-quarters-of-a-length from Morant ($9) with Like Bolt ($5.50) the same distance back third. 

Story by Brad Bishop, to view full Racing Victoria story click here

Photo by Bruno Cannatelli, to view Bruno's website click here