Septimus weight boost for O'Brien

Aidan O’Brien has been given more reason to aim Septimus at the Melbourne Cup after hearing that the five-year-old will not pick up a penalty for his runaway success in the Irish St Leger.

Unbeaten in his last four starts, the son of Sadler’s Wells powered away to score by 13 lengths at the weekend, but he will still carry the 58.5kg (9st 3lb) he was originally allotted.