{"id":16686,"date":"2016-10-13T07:24:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-13T07:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/?p=16686"},"modified":"2016-10-13T07:24:03","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T07:24:03","slug":"de-little-engine-slips-into-caulfield-cup-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/2016\/10\/13\/de-little-engine-slips-into-caulfield-cup-field\/","title":{"rendered":"De Little Engine slips into Caulfield Cup field"},"content":{"rendered":"

When De Little Engine<\/strong> (Encosta de Lago x Arapaho Miss)\u00a0started his spring campaign trainer Danny O’Brien was looking at another race on Caulfield Cup day.<\/p>\n

But as numbers began to fall, the six-year-old has found himself in Saturday’s 2400m-handicap.<\/p>\n

The gelding was first emergency when the field was finalised on Tuesday and gained a start with the scratching of New Zealand mare Fanatic following a suspected spider bite.<\/p>\n

O’Brien had Saturday’s Coongy Cup in mind for De Little Engine as part of a long range plan towards winning the Lexus Stakes at Flemington on Derby day and gaining a start in the Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t expect at any stage that he was going to get a run in the Caulfield Cup,” O’Brien said<\/p>\n

“We’re certainly not complaining as in any other year we wouldn’t even be an emergency.<\/p>\n

“He’s come up in really good order. He’s a really seasoned, older style of stayer now.<\/p>\n

“He’s gone through the grades over the last couple of seasons and carried big weights.<\/p>\n

“Now that he’s getting up in grade he’s getting right down in weight which is a big help as he’s only a little horse.”<\/p>\n

O’Brien won the Caulfield Cup in 2007 with lightweight Master O’Reilly who found his way into the race by winning the Herbert Power Stakes the week before.<\/p>\n

De Little Engine will be ridden by Ben Thompson, one of three apprentices riding in the race for the first time.<\/p>\n

Thompson found out De Little Engine had made the field while he was riding in barrier trials at Seymour on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“I can’t thank Danny O’Brien, his team and connections enough for the opportunity for the ride,” Thompson said.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a huge thrill.”<\/p>\n

De Little Engine was born at Amarina in 2010 for breeders SF Bloodstock before being sold as a weanling on the Gold Coast where he was purchased by Uluru Stud for $47,500.<\/p>\n

-AAP<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When De Little Engine (Encosta de Lago x Arapaho Miss)\u00a0started his spring campaign trainer Danny O’Brien was looking at another race on Caulfield Cup day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/De-Little-Engine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16688,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16686\/revisions\/16688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amarinafarm.com.au\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}