Home Affairs is not the only three-year-old in the Newmarket Handicap looking to improve on the record of that age group in the feature sprint at Flemington.
Artorius and Finance Tycoon will join Home Affairs as they attempt to land a third win in Saturday’s Group 1 sprint over 1200m for the three-year-olds in the past four years.
Sunlight scored in 2019 followed by Bivouac in 2020 while Zoutori scored for the older brigade last year.
Home Affairs will need to lump 56kg if he is to join Sunlight as a Coolmore Stud and Newmarket Handicap winner in the same season.
Artorius has 51kg while Finance Tycoon will carry a half-kilogram less after weights were raised 0.5kg at acceptance time on Wednesday.
Danny O’Brien said Finance Tycoon had done exceptionally well since his win at Caulfield on February 26 when he captured the Group 3 Zeditave Stakes (1200m).
After starting his career with Lindsay Park, which included a win in the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate (1000m) at Flemington as a two-year-old, Finance Tycoon was transferred to O’Brien at the start of his three-year-old season.
Finance Tycoon disappointed when sixth in the Listed Poseidon Stakes (1100m) at Flemington in September where it was discovered he was a ‘roarer’, a condition in which one side of the larynx becomes paralysed.
Finance Tycoon returned from a break with a third at The Valley in January before his win at Caulfield.
“He’s had the operation and his wind is still not great and he’s a horse that is always going to have that issue,” O’Brien said.
“But we were always hoping that he would come back. He was good first-up with a big weight and then he was excellent at Caulfield the other day.
“He’s very well handicapped and he’s won down the straight as a two-year-old and the 1200 metres is probably as far as he wants.”
With 50.5kg, O’Brien has called on apprentice Josh Richards, who still claims 2kg in the metropolitan area, to ride Finance Tycoon on Saturday.
“Down on 50-1/2 kilos there’s not that many around that can do it these days,” O’Brien said.
