Big autumn at Sandown

THE Victoria Racing Club will stage the third of seven meetings transferred to Sandown this season on Saturday.
The autumn feature meeting will be run on the Sandown Hillside track and be highlighted by the running of the $352,000 Group 2 Blamey Stakes over 1600 metres, a set weights plus penalties event.
Flemington racecourse is undergoing a total refurbishment which started immediately after the 2006 Melbourne Cup carnival ended, and racing will not return until the Makybe Diva Stakes meeting in September.
Meanwhile, the Victoria Racing Club has transferred most meetings to the other three metropolitan tracks, with some midweek meetings going to Werribee, Ballarat and Bendigo.
Every race this Saturday will carry a minimum of $75,000 in prize money.
Together with the Blamey Stakes, the meeting will feature the $200,000 Group Three Matron Stakes (1600 metres), $126,500 Listed ATA/Bob Hoysted Handicap (1000 metres), $100,000 Listed PFD Food Services Stakes (1000 metres) and the $101,000 Roy Higgins Quality (2400 metres).
Apache Cat, trained at Cranbourne by Greg Eurell, will contest the Blamey Stakes on his way to Sydney to tackle the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500 metres) at Rosehill and the Group 1 Doncaster Handicap (1600 metres) at Randwick.
A dual Australian equestrian representative, Eurell has established himself in the upper echelon of Victorian trainers and has declared that Apache Cat, the 2006 Group One Cadbury Guineas winner, the best he has trained to date.
Top jockey Damien Oliver is the gelding’s likely rider at Sandown and also in its Sydney campaign.
Admission on Saturday will be $14 for adults, $8 concession, and children 11 and under accompanied by an adult will be admitted free.