O'BRIEN LOOKS TO HANDICAPPER AFTER SASS SALUTES

The handicapper's reaction will be important to trainer Danny O'Brien after Sass Appeal started her Group 1 push with a frontrunning win in the VRC Membership Renewals Open (1410m).

O'Brien has aimed Sass Appeal at next month's Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield but knew the new four-year-old needed to increase her previous rating of 80 to get into the field for such contests.

O'Brien ended Sass Appeals autumn campaign early with Group 1 handicaps in mind for the spring before the mare stretched her winning run to five with her latest success under apprentice Logan Bates.

Bates had no trouble finding the front on Sass Appeal, controlling proceedings to the home turn before the Group 2-winning daughter of So You Think outsprinted her rivals under 51.5kg to score by three-quarters of a length.

The game runner-up Rise At Dawn gave Sass Appeal 8.5kg after apprentice Luke Cartwright's claim with the weight difference the deciding factor in the last 200m.

"With the weight differential today, she was entitled to get it done first-up, but she couldn't have done much more," O'Brien said.

O'Brien could expect the Racing Victoria handicapping panel to push up Sass Appeal's rating by five or six points after her first win in open company.

However, he said Sass Appeal would have another chance to boost her rating in another Benchmark 100 race at Caulfield at the end of the month.

O'Brien said he decided to follow the same program as last year's winner Sepals, who was a Group 3 winner as a three-year-old before returning the next season to win the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes carrying 52kg.

"She's probably got four weeks until she goes to Caulfield on Memsie (Stakes) day and her first Group 1 comes up pretty early on the 19th of September," O'Brien said.

"Her fitness levels are good and they'll improve from today's gallop but she's exactly where we hoped to have her.

"The race she's going to on Memsie day, Sepals won that race last year and went into the Rupert Clarke as a similar profile of horse, a four-year-old early in the season."

Story by Brad Waters for Racenet

Pic by Racing Photos