Summer’s Passage to the Guineas set in stone

Summer Passage

STAR Kiwi three-year-old Summer Passage is on track for the Group One Caulfield Guineas in just under a fortnight’s time, but this time the horse will be steered by a new jockey.

Trained by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, Summer Passage was piloted by Mark Zahra into second for in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude, but the star Victorian will not be available for the feature event.

O’Sullivan said no decision on a replacement has been made.

“Mark is booked to ride Catchy, one of the favourites,” O’Sullivan said.

“We’ve had a bit of interest in the ride but nobody has been confirmed yet.”

On the strength of Summer Passage’s Guineas Prelude effort and its sole juvenile run in Australia when second to Invader in the Group One ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes, there will be no shortage of suitors ready to take the ride.

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Despite the great deal of optimism, it has not been all rosy this campaign for the three-year-old.

Summer Passage put in a poor performance fresh in the Danehill Stakes, but the trainer was willing to concede the horse needed to blow out some cobwebs.

“It was his first run on good ground since February and he needed it,” O’Sullivan said.

“But if he wasn’t in the first three last Sunday we’d have been disappointed. He would not have been heading in the right direction.

“He was sixth favourite so wasn’t fancied, but he did well. He had to do a fair bit early when he was out on a limb.”
O’Sullivan said Summer Passage continues to improve.

“I’d like to see a bit more condition on him, but he looked better this week than he did two weeks ago,” he said. “I still think there’s more improvement in him and he’d want to improve a bit more for the Caulfield Guineas.”

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