KEY POINTS:
El Segundo yesterday became the best racehorse in Australia.
At least for a week or two.
The horse who had been a candidate for top honours last spring galloped to the head of the list in the Group One C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
On a day when one of his rivals for top honours challenged his supremacy, El Segundo put everything back in proper perspective with his consummate victory.
Haradasun, who won with ridiculous ease in the Wellington Racing Club Stakes at Caulfield, is a particularly handy colt who is looking like the best 3-year-old in the country.
But El Segundo is, for now, the best of any age.
"He even surprises me sometimes," said his trainer Colin Little.
"Today was one of those times."
The merit in El Segundo's Orr Stakes win was in the quality of the horses he beat as much as in the ease of his victory.
Among the horses he raced past in the final 200m were the champion filly Miss Finland, New Zealand's best mare, Seachange, the Cox Plate placegetter Pompeii Ruler and the Caulfield Cup winner Tawqeet.
It was left to the West Australian emerging star Marasco and Gai Waterhouse's Aqua D'Amore to chase El Segundo to the line.
But at no stage did they threaten the winner.
Seachange was given every chance and led for much of the race but was swallowed up in the run to the line to finish fifth.
El Segundo started favourite and won by a length and a quarter, his jockey Damien Oliver assuring connections there was plenty in reserve. It was Oliver's second Orr Stakes, having won on Durbridge in 1993.
Only a couple of horses in the country are capable of challenging El Segundo's claim to the top rung in the local racing ladder.
One of those, Eremein, will make his autumn reappearance in Sydney in a couple of weeks. Eremein is a star, but he has some work to do before he joins El Segundo.
When Oliver asked for his effort in the straight the Pins gelding responded instantly and strode clear to post his 10th win at his 19th start.
Marasco held on doggedly to claim second while Aqua D'Amore, who missed the start, was an eye-catching third.
- AAP
