Leading owner Lloyd Williams has provided three of the 13 nominations for Saturday’s $350,000 Zipping Classic, the race he covets almost as much as the Melbourne Cup.
Multiple Group One winner Fawkner, Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon and the imported Sea Moon give Williams and his private trainer Robert Hickmott a strong hand in the Group 2 race that his stayers have won six times since 2003.
The race was renamed the Zipping Classic after his former star won the event that was formerly known as the Sandown Classic, and before that the Sandown Cup, four times.
Fawkner is the current star of the Williams team and is looking to bounce back from his Melbourne Cup tenth at Flemington last week.
The 2013 Caulfield Cup won the G1 Caulfield Stakes and finished second in the G2 WS Cox Plate at his previous two starts, form that would make him the horse to beat under the weight-for-age conditions of the Zipping Classic.
The 2012 Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon has gone a month since his ninth in the Caulfield Cup won by Admire Rakti on October 18, having missed a Melbourne Cup start due to a fitness issue.
Sea Moon has been a big disappointment for Williams but the stable is persevering despite his poor last place finish in the Caulfield Cup at his latest start.
The other nominations for the Zipping Classic include Moonee Valley Cup winner and Queen Elizabeth Stakes runner-up Prince Of Penzance, French-trained Melbourne Cup runner Au Revoir, the Andrew Balding-trained import Lord Van Percy and Mackinnon Stakes fourth Spillway.
The David Hayes/Tom Dabernig partnership have also nominated Spillway for Saturday’s $150,000 Eclipse Stakes (1800m).
Promising three-year-old Rekindled Power from the Paul Messara stable is set to step up to Group company in Saturday’s $300,000 Sandown Guineas (1600m) after his impressive last win at Bendigo at only his third start.
The G2 Guineas has attracted 14 nominations including Lord Aspen, the rising Adelaide star who kept his unbeaten record intact when he won at Flemington on Saturday.
