Odyssey Moon heading to NZ for G1 sprint

Standish Handicap winner Odyssey Moon will head to New Zealand for the Telegraph Handicap in a bid to land an important Group One win.

Trainer Robert Smerdon has confirmed the Telegraph at Trentham on Saturday week will be the four-year-old’s next start, with the sprinter a late entry for the 1200m-race.

“He flies out on Wednesday night and Noel Callow is going to ride him,” Smerdon said.

Odyssey Moon, who began his racing career with trainer Rod Northam at Scone before joining Smerdon’s team in Melbourne ahead of his autumn three-year-old campaign, has won four of his 21 starts and been placed another eight times.

He was Group One placed as a two-year-old when he finished second in a dead-heat with Rageese in the 2015 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes in Sydney.

He has also been placed in another seven stakes races and broke through for his first black-type victory in the Group Three Standish Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on January 1.

A Group One win would obviously enhance the entire’s stud prospects.

“That’s the motivation, for sure,” Smerdon said.

“His manager (James Harron) put the race up and I had no objection to it, so it makes sense to have a crack at it.”

Odyssey Moon will return to Melbourne after the Telegraph Handicap.

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