Sepoy will face the 1200m straight track at Flemington

It’s all systems go for Darley as their flagship racehorse prepares for his second start of the spring this Saturday at Flemington.

Sepoy proved he’d lost nothing when returning as a three year old two weekends ago to easily account for a quality field and reaffirm his claim as the horse to beat over the carnival.

This weekend he moves on to the Danehill Stakes at Flemington where he’ll face a test of a slightly different nature.

While the field is probably no stronger than what he beat a fortnight back he’ll have to do it up the 1200m straight track at Flemington.

It is a format he has taken on before but that was on debut over 1000m.

He won that race by a length but he’ll need to do it again a black type field to prove he is genuinely comfortable in a straight line.

Paul Snowden says the stable is happy with how he’s progressing though and they’ll have no excuses should he fail to fire.

“He worked terrific and Kerrin’s (Kerrin McEvoy) happy so it all looks good for Saturday,” he said.

They are expecting plenty of improvement out of his last run but he will still be a little way off 100 percent in the Danehill.

“We did enough with him to get away with it the other day and he was always going to improve sharply and I think he can after Saturday as well,” he said.

“He’s a horse that can hold his condition well.”

Although there’s no doubt he has the class edge over his rivals on Saturday, there’s a sense Flemington is still a bit of a query.

“We’re taking it one race at a time, he has had the benefit of being down the straight before though,” he said.

“He’s such an adaptable horse, he can settle anywhere in the run.”

The Danehill Stakes is a Group 2 rated event and there are currently 12 nominations for the race however it’s expected that number may drop considerably at the time of acceptances.