Wednesday, 11 November 2009: Jockey Michael Rodd is hoping to end his spring carnival on a high and earn some honeymoon money with a third straight win of Zipping in Saturday's Group 2 Sandown Classic (2400m).
 | Zipping parades before his MacKinnon scratching
Photo by Racing and Sports | |
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Rodd has had a successful spring, including winning the Group 1 Crown Oaks on exciting filly Faint Perfume, and as the carnival winds down this weekend will get married on Sunday to his fiance Cara Aspinall.
But first he has the job of piloting Zipping in the feature weight-for-age race to a history making win.
Three horses have won the race twice – Zipping the last two years, Morse Code in 1950 and 1952 and Second Wind in 1930 and 1931.
Although Zipping won't go down in the annulls as a great of the turf, he has been a resilient campaigner at the top level for a number of seasons.
The eight-year-old, who has placed in the last two Cox Plates, is coming into Saturday race having finished third behind So You Think in the weight-for-age championship.
He was to have run in the MacKinnon Stakes on Derby day but got down in the gates and had to be extricated from underneath the stalls, resulting in his late scratching.
Zipping 
, who has started favourite in the last two Sandown Classics, won't hold that position at top of markets this year, though, likely to be in the hands of MacKinnon winner Scenic Shot.
Scenic Shot fans will be buoyed by the record of favourites in the race, with the public elect winning four of the last five.
On the other hand, the last MacKinnon winner to take the Sandown Classic (then Cup) was Stormy Seas in 1972, one of only three horses to win the double in over 110 years.
