Jedibeel defying breeding to carve sprinting niche

As a son of noted staying sire Savabeel, Jedibeel was bought with the intention of running in distance races, but he is fast proving himself to be a very capable sprinter.

The gelding took his record to six wins from 14 starts with a dominant performance in Saturday’s Schweppes Handicap (1100m) at Rosehill, trainer Brad Widdup admitting he wasn’t initially expecting the horse to be so sharp.

“I bought him to run 2000 metres,” Widdup said.

“After his first prep I said to (owner) Mike (Gregg), ‘I don’t think this horse will run 1200 metres’.

“I did a genetic test on him and he came back as a sprinter. That made us focus on sprinting with the horse and it has helped a lot

“We used to do that a bit at Godolphin, not on every horse but on those that might not be going the right way on race day.”

Jedibeel isn’t the first of Savabeel’s progeny to excel over shorter journeys, top galloper I Wish I Win also being by the 2004 Cox Plate winner.

Widdup is keen to raise the bar for the four-year-old, although Jedibeel is likely to go for a spell first before returning to tackle some of the feature summer sprints.

“I think he is starting to find his feet as a horse,” Widdup said.

“We gelded him this time in and he has been faultless.

“I will probably give him a break now. In December there is the Razor Sharp (Handicap), or a race like that.”

Ridden by Tyler Schiller, Jedibeel ($3.40 betting) scored by 2-1/2 lengths over Contemporary($4.80) with Iowna Merc ($12) third.