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Sepals bidding to make Group 1 breakthrough at Caulfield
By Trevor Marshallsea
ANZ News
Four years after his return to Victoria from Singapore, trainer Cliff Brown is hopeful progressive four-year-old Sepals (Calyx) can land a major breakthrough for his boutique stable when he steps up to top-level company in Saturday’s Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
Sepals will be having only his seventh start in Caulfield’s $1 million handicap - returned to its traditional timeslot this season after two November runnings - but such has been his progress, he’s a $5 equal-second favourite.
In a market headed by relative newcomers with light weights, exciting Yulong acquisition Angel Capital (Harry Angel) was a $3.50 favourite as he seeks his sixth win from nine starts.
And at $8 among the nominations are proven top-tier winner Another Wil (Street Boss), who was runner-up in this race last year, and New Zealand mare Damask Rose (Savabeel).
Brown bought Sepals for $80,000 at Inglis Classic in 2023, partly led by having trained his dam What’s New (Casino Prince) to two stakes wins in Singapore, and the gelding hasn’t disappointed.
In the space of three runs at the start of this year, he claimed a Sale maiden at start number two, became a city winner at Sandown and a black-type winner at Flemington, by taking the CS Hayes Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) at $7.50.
Feroce (Super Seth) ran third that day before turning the tables two weeks later by winning the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) while Sepals ran fourth as a $3.70 favourite.
After a spell, Sepals’ intended resumption - and rise to weight-for-age black type grade - was scuppered at the last second when he was scratched at the barrier before Caulfield’s PB Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).
But that proved only a delay, rather than a major setback, as two weeks later the gelding returned to top form by winning in Benchmark 100 grade, again over the Rupert Clarke course of 1400 metres at Caulfield, as a solidly backed favourite. Jumping from an awkward gate nine of 14 from that start, Sepals strode up to race outside the leader’s rump, and exploded at the 200 metres to score by 4.3 lengths.
What's On
Brown is under no illusions as to the toughness of this Saturday’s test, but at least Sepals has two major elements in his favour - a light weight of 52 kilograms and the country’s best lightweight rider in Craig Williams, who wins Rupert Clarkes for fun.
Williams is the most successful jockey in the race’s history, winning it seven times among its past 20 editions, including last year on Kimochi (Brave Smash).
As he seeks an elusive first Group 1 since his return from Singapore, Brown is confident Sepals will at least put his best foot forward over what appears to be his favourite trip.
“So far so good,” Brown told ANZ News.
“He’s always been a nice horse, and he just keeps progressing. He’s now won four from six, so he’s done a good job.
“But it’s going to be a great field, so he’s got to keep improving. Whether he’s good enough, we don’t know. Angel Capital was very impressive the other day, and there’s some other nice horses in there.
“It’s a big step up for my horse, but it’s also the right race. It’s a handicap, so he’ll have some weight relief. But Angel Capital is down in the weights as well [53.5 kilograms], so it’ll be interesting.
“But we’re hoping like mad. Hopefully we’re competitive.”
Mornington-based Brown had good cause to pursue Sepals at Inglis Classic. The horse was bred by his old friend and client Greg Perry, as the first foal of a mare the trainer knew well.
Brown prepared What’s New to become Singapore’s Champion 4YO and Older Female in 2019. A winner of six races from 22 starts, she claimed two Singapore Listed contests in the first two legs of the city-state’s four-year-old Triple Crown - the Silver Bowl (1400m) and Stewards’ Cup (1600m). She then started favourite in the third leg, the Singapore Derby (Listed, 1800m) but on an unsuitable wet track could manage only fourth.
“She was a good racemare,” Brown said. “She wasn’t very big but she had a great attitude, and was a lovely horse to deal with. I’d say if she was back in Australia, she’d have probably been about the level of a Listed winner.
“Greg Perry bred Sepals, and I’ve trained for Greg for a long time. And at the yearling sale, the horse just appealed to me as a good bodied horse who was a great, fluent mover. But what really struck me was his great attitude - just like his mother.”
Sepals also has depth going back to his fourth dam Good Faith (Straight Strike), winner of Ellerslie’s Sires’ Produce Stakes - now the Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), the top filly on the 1996-97 Australasian 2YO Classification, and dam of two stakes winners.
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Perry now has a yearling half-brother to Sepals by Star Turn (Star Witness), but What’s New lost her colt by Exceedance (Exceed And Excel) after birth last month.
As for Sepals’ sire, the ill-fated Calyx (Kingman), Brown might have struck at the right time.
A winner at Group 2 and Group 3 level from just four starts, Calyx shuttled to Coolmore Australia twice, attracting 69 mares in 2020 and 55 a year later, at a fee of $13,750 (inc GST).
He was hugely popular in Ireland, however, covering a whopping 273 mares at Coolmore in 2024 - more than any other Flat stallion in Europe.
However, he suffered an acute foot injury in May this year which led to him being euthanised.
Still, his Australian progeny have represented him well enough, with three stakes winners at 7.6 per cent of his 40 runners. That compares to a worldwide figure of nine from 187 at 4.8 per cent.
His gelded son Likeakalix won the Launceston Guineas (Listed, 2100m) and Tasmanian Derby (Listed, 2200m) back-to-back in January.
And Calyx has been in form of late, with Irish-bred import Nellie Leylax having become his third Australian stakes winner by taking Randwick’s Premier’s Cup (Gr 3, 2000m), a week before Sepals’ first-up romp.
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Brown achieved much success in his 12 years in Singapore. He was a regular top-five finisher on the trainers’ premiership, the first trainer to win five local Group 1s in a season, and had Singapore’s Horse of the Year twice with Debt Collector (Thorn Park) and The Inferno (Holy Roman Emperor)
Returning to Victoria with Brown in 2021, The Inferno won the McEwen Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) at his second Australian start, and ran an agonising 0.1 length second in the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at his next, behind Wild Ruler (Snitzel).
The Inferno would run four more stakes placings before his retirement last year.
Yaphet (Blackfriars) earned Brown another elite second when beaten 1.8 lengths by Jungle Magnate (Tarzino) in the 2022 South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
Brown, who has a team of around 40 runners on his books, also won Flemington’s Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m) last year with Von Hauke (Savabeel).
But while his winners have grown in each of his seasons after leaving Singapore - from ten to 20, 25 and 34 - he’s still yet to break through for that elusive Group 1 success since returning home.
Becoming established again has been a necessarily long haul, but Brown is hopeful Sepals can achieve what would be a hugely significant victory for his small stable in the Rupert Clarke.
“It does take a few years to get going again,” he said. “I remember John O’Shea said after he left Godolphin, it really took him five years to get going, and he’s 100 per cent right.
“It feels like I’m slowly getting traction now, but the rest of the time since I’ve been back - God, it felt like torture. You just couldn’t get going.
“So it would be a massive breakthrough if we could claim a Group 1. It’d be good for everyone, so here’s hoping.”
