Top Brisbane miler Epic is set to take a belated step up in class and tackle Sydney’s spring carnival.
Epic will take his place in the Group Two Shannon Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
He has won three of his past four starts over 1600m at Doomben and is rated one of the best horses at the metric mile produced in Brisbane for years.
Overall he boasts five wins and two minor placings from seven 1600-metre starts despite the six-year-old being dogged by injury.
But he has rarely stepped out in elite company although one of his best runs was a third behind Group One winner Solzhenitsyn in the 2013 Lord Mayors Cup at Doomben.
Epic was injured in that race and spent more than a year away from the racetrack.
Trainer Kelly Schweida has nursed Epic through two more campaigns and the gelding has now won nine races and $319,000 in prize money.
“He has been so consistent and brave. It is a miracle he is racing at all and he deserves a crack at better races,” Schweida said.
“A few people said I should have entered him for the (Group One) Epsom but I don’t think he is up to that just yet. We will try something a bit easier first.”
Schweida said Epic would also be entered for a 1600-metre race at Doomben on Saturday but Sydney was the preferred option.
Thirteen of the 18 Shannon nominations are entered for the Epsom, headed by topweights Cluster and Riva De Lago.
But Cluster is an unlikely starter in either race as trainers Peter and Paul Snowden look interstate for the four-year-old’s next start.
Cluster worked the Melbourne way of going at Randwick on Tuesday morning in preparation for the Group One Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield on Sunday.
The Shannon winner is exempt from a ballot on the Epsom Handicap.
Bennetta will be missing from the Golden Pendant, a $300,000 race expected to be dominated by Catkins.
Winner of the Group Two Light Fingers Stakes as a three-year-old, Bennetta has run her last race because of feet issues.
She bows out with a Group Three placing in the Toy Show Quality last month after three wins, six placings and more than $430,000 in stakes under the care of Randwick trainer Grahame Begg.
