FARAG ON COURSE FOR A PIECE OF JERICHO CUP HISTORY

By Graham Potter | Saturday, November 29, 2025

Trainer Aaron Purcell will take the eight-year-old gelding Farag to Warrnambool on Sunday where the son of Sacred Falls will take on thirteen rivals in the 2025 edition of the Jericho Cup … a race in which Farag romped in last year by a staggering twenty length margin.

Last year’s Jericho Cup success and his return to the Warrnambool leaves Farag targeting a special place in the history of the race as no runner has won back-to-back Jericho Cup’s before.

The task facing Farag to achieve that is to carry a whopping 70kg for over five-and-a-half minutes while covering a race distance of 4600m … in the longest race in Australia … and do that faster than any other runner.

Last year Farag carried 69kg to that memorable victory, so, in theory, the 1kg rise in weights should not be too critical a factor to the outcome … but, a more important factor is the task it sets Farag relative to his opposition with Farag being asked to give away a weight advantage … from 3kg to 7kg to all of his rivals … and the effect of that weight differential is obviously exaggerated over a journey as long as 4600m.

Farag is ready to take on the challenge though, having confirmed his well-being with a smooth warm-up win at Geelong over 3762m last time out.

Will Gordon, who rode Farag to victory last year and who was also in the saddle at Geelong, will be in the saddle again on Sunday.

Split, the Paddy and Michelle Payne trained six-year-old, who finished in second place those twenty lengths behind Farag last year is back for another bite at the cherry … and the Jamie Edwards trained Reddito, who chased Farag home at Geelong has also taken up the challenge along with the Patrick Ryan Jnr trained Ferago who finished third at Geelong.

Farag and Ferago are currently joint favourites for the race at $5.50.