Pentane runs down Zabeat in Auckland cup

Michael Walker riding Pentane secures victory in the SkyCity Auckland Cup by a nose. Sandra Mu/Getty Images

Lance O'Sullivan is going after the one that got away.

New Zealand's greatest ever jockey recorded the biggest success of his young training career when Pentane won the $600,000 Sky City Auckland Cup at Ellerslie today.

The Matamata-trained galloper came with a perfectly-timed ride under rider Michael Walker to win the 3200m thriller by a long neck from Zabeat and favourite Zarius, who was trapped wide throughout and battled gamely into third.

The win came at just Pentane's 11th start and had O'Sullivan talking about the biggest race to elude him as a jockey, the Melbourne Cup.

The closest O'Sullivan got to winning Australia's greatest race was his second on Koiro Corrie May in 1985 and he is looking forward to the chance to return to Flemington as a trainer.

"That is the aim. It would be great to simply have a starter in a race like the Melbourne Cup," said O'Sullivan, who won the Auckland Cup twice as a jockey.

"He has only had 11 starts and is almost untapped at this start so who knows how good he could be."

Pentane is a son of imported stallion Pentire, who is also the sire of New Zealand's glamour galloper Xcellent, who ran third in year's Melbourne Cup.

The muddling early pace in the race, coupled with a track deadened by overnight rain saw Pentane record a slowish time of 3:21.5 for the 3200m and he returned $5.25 on the win tote.