Racing: Cup champ beaten but far from disgraced

Robert Mitchell has a simple message for punters who are worried about Just An Excuse's fourth placing at Alexandra Park on Friday night - don't panic.

The dual New Zealand Cup winner finished fourth, just under a length behind the winner Myron, after sitting outside the pace-setting Alta Serena for the last 1200 metres.

The Raglan-based trainer was far from disappointed with the performance of the 7-year-old.

"It was always my intention to use this race as a starting point with him for this season as opposed to giving him another trial run," said Mitchell.

"In the back of my mind I thought that he may be one run short of peak fitness heading into the Spring Cup, so, instead of giving him another run at the trials, I raced him on Friday night.

"Don't get me wrong, he was fit enough to race, but not quite screwed down as much as I would usually have him right now.

"It was a funny race, because there were only six runners and most of them just sat back and let the leader walk in front. Most of the drivers were sitting waiting for Todd [regular driver Todd Mitchell] to make his move and when that happened the field broke out of single file order.

"He sat parked in closing 800 metre and 400 metre splits of 56.8 seconds and 27.9 seconds and he came to the end of his run in the last 100 metres.

"I'll get a better line on him next Friday night when we start in the Spring Cup. He had a bit of a puff after the race and I do think he will strip down a much fitter horse after this run.

"I'd like to see him get a nice drag into the race in his next start and sprint off the back of another runner. That'll give me a line on where we are with him right now.

"He's a year older and he may just take that little bit of extra racing to bring him up to peak fitness.

"I'm not worried with him because he's eating and drinking as he normally does.

"The thing with this horse is that you can tell when he's not 100 per cent fit and well, because his appetite is the first thing that plays up. I'll give him a couple of training runs this week down Raglan Beach and he'll be ready next Friday night."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY