By Mike Dillon
Meet Chevvy, the Australian raider who might have to win Saturday's $100,000 Queen Elizabeth Handicap and next week's $350,000 Auckland Cup all on his own.
But then Cheviot, as he is known on raceday, is used to the unusual.
The Melbourne-trained stayer has spent half his life in a lonely paddock recuperating from two career-threatening breakdowns and a life-threatening colic operation.
If his luck is in at Ellerslie on Saturday, he probably will not mind walking around at the victory celebration with his 29-year-old trainer, Cliff Brown, 3000km away in Melbourne.
Brown's wife, Jo, is due to give birth to the couple's first baby and Brown said he was grounded, even if the Auckland Cup would be the biggest win of his seven-year training career.
"I'd be shot if I said I was coming over," Brown said from Melbourne yesterday. "I've bought a plane ticket just in case, but even that didn't go over too well, so I haven't mentioned it since."
One of Brown's stable staff accompanied Cheviot on the flight to Auckland then on to Laurie Laxon's Cambridge stable on Monday night.
If Brown has to be patient to see Cheviot's next major win, it is something he has got used to.
He fancied he had something of a Melbourne Cup-winning chance when Cheviot won the 1996 South Australian Derby and followed it up in the spring with thirds in the Feehan Stakes and Turnbull Stakes in his Cup build-up.
But he broke down badly in a suspensory ligament in Saintly's Melbourne Cup of 1996.
"He ran a fabulous race in that Cup - he was last on the home bend, ran his final 600m in 35s to finish 10th after breaking down. He simply got too far out of his ground."
Cheviot broke down again when put back into training last year and was recovering from that when he had an attack of colic which was so severe he collapsed in his paddock.
"The vet said his intestines were so badly twisted surgery was his only hope. They operated, but even then they weren't too confident of him surviving."
Survive Cheviot did, and his gut-busting $A250,000 Sandown Cup win the week after the Melbourne Cup last month suggests he is a real chance to lift both of Ellerslie's major staying prizes over the carnival.
If you fancy backing him on Saturday, there is one tip - do not look at him first, you will swear he is too fat.
Brown said: "He's got a big fat guts like myself, but it's just him. He had it the day he won the South Australian Derby and he'll always have it."
Despite the fact that Cheviot spends his life swathed in bandages, Brown said the six-year-old's legs were in pretty good shape.
Pictured: Aussie raider Cheviot enjoys a bit of tlc at Laurie Laxon's Cambridge stable yesterday. HERALD PICTURE / BRENDON O'HAGAN
Chevvy looks like one to chase
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