Ireland manager Joseph O’Brien tries a different approach while Baron Samedi and Cleveland chase success in Sydney

Ireland manager Joseph O’Brien has a slightly different approach in his attempt to add the Sydney Cup to his two Melbourne Cup trophies.

O’Brien won Australia’s most famous horse race with Rekindling in 2017 and Twilight Payment in 2020, both horses conquering the two-mile feature in their Australian debuts.

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While he has followed the same formula with Baron Samedi, O’Brien has taken a different route with stablemate Cleveland, giving this horse a lead run in the Group 1 Tankred Stakes (2400m).

Cleveland finished a conspicuous fifth at Rosehill and with a weight loss of eight kilos is a $3.90 favorite giving O’Brien his first Sydney Cup (3200m) at Randwick on Saturday.

Sean Corby is part of the team looking after the O’Brien horses at Canterbury until his boss arrives later this week and reports that Cleveland has continued to thrive since the tancred.

“He didn’t work much in between. The run got him on point, so he’s just been doing his routine canters and we’re building it up a bit as the week progresses into Saturday,” Corby said.

“Kerrin (Mcevoy) was very happy with him so it looks like going two miles would suit him well.”

O’Brien kept his powder dry with Baron Samedi and chose not to give him a preparatory run due to the firm lanes that were prevalent earlier in the autumn.

The six-year-old has scored six of his seven wins on rain-stained ground and will enjoy the wet conditions expected at Randwick.

“He didn’t have a prep run as Joseph was waiting for the ground to slow down a bit and he looks like he has now so hopefully he can run well on Saturday too,” Corby said.

“He would have worked a lot before he came here and he’s a gelding, not like Cleveland so he wouldn’t take on that much work and he should be fit for Saturday.”

Both horses have wide draws to overcome, Cleveland Barrier 17 and Baron Samedi 20.

Corby says Baron Samedi has some tactical speed if they choose to use it, while Cleveland will likely settle into midfield like they did at the Tancred.

“Hopefully he can put himself a little behind the leaders or the middle class over there,” Corby said of Cleveland.

“If he can go in three wide somewhere in this race that would be good.”

McEvoy sticks to Cleveland and has a great record at two-mile races, having won the Melbourne Cup three times aboard Brew (2000), Almandin (2016) and Cross Counter (2018) and the Sydney Cup twice on Honor Babe ( 2003) and Gallante won (2016).

– RAS NewsWire