Lankan Rupee suffers shock loss at McEwan Stakes

Lankan Rupee fails to live up to his billing as the world's best sprinter, finishing second at the McEwan Stakes at the Moonee Valley racecourse.

A heavy favourite going into the race, trainer Mick Price declared that there would be no excuses for anything but a victory, however it was fast-finishing Angelic Light who held strong to hold off the sprint specialist down the straight.

Lankan Rupee last raced at the Group 1 T.J. Smith Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on April 12, cruising home for a dominant win, a result which only further built the anticipation for today's race, which most expected Lankan Rupee would comfortably extend his winning streak to seven races.

For Angelic Light, the result was equally a surprise, having spent over a year off the track due to a variety of injury problems and trainer Robbie Griffiths admits he did not expect to take out the Group 2 race.

"I didn’t expect it, you’d have to be silly to say you would,” he told TVN.

“I was very happy with her first-up run and I thought today we were a real chance of running second and I would have been delighted with that."

“But to see her did deep and get on top of the world’s best sprinter, that’s very exciting."