Brett Crawford, looking for the first Mercury Sprint success of his career, is concerned about Post Merchants winner Search Party’s wide draw (14 out of 15) in Saturday’s Greyville feature.

Search Party (Liesl King)

He said: “It is going to make things very tough for us. Search Party can be a fast starter but the poor draw is unfortunate. A lot is going to depend on the conditions on the day as to what we try to do about it.”

Corne Orffer’s mount opened 6-1 third favourite with World Sports Betting which has the Sean Tarry-trained Trip To Heaven heading the market at 3-1 with stable companion Bull Valley next on 4-1.

Crawford has decided against running Investec Cape Derby and Daily News winner Edict Of Nantes again this season and intends putting him away with the ultimate objective being a third Sun Met win in four years for the stable.

He explained: “It would be silly to run him in the WSB Champions Cup at the weights. He is rated 107 yet he would only be getting a kilo and a half from the older horses. He is going to have a break before we start getting him ready for the summer.

“His mission in Durban was always the Daily News and he achieved that. He put up a great performance in the July but he never got the run of the race. I thought he ran really well.”

By Michael Clower