KEY POINTS:
If Xcellent wins today's A$1 million Stradbroke in Brisbane, he should immediately be announced Horse of the Year and Team Moroney Trainers of the Year.
That's how difficult the task is facing New Zealand's best galloper. Consider these factors:
* The Stradbroke is Australasia's toughest 1400m race.
* Xcellent broke down after finishing third in Makybe Diva's 2005 Melbourne Cup and has had stem cell surgery.
* He has not raced for 19 months.
* He has not even had an official barrier trial.
* He has 57kg clear topweight, 2kg more than the next in the handicap.
* The No 1 barrier draw is potentially horrendous for a horse that traditionally settles off the speed.
* The slow track is against him and makes the barrier draw worse.
* There is a capacity field of 20, which makes coming from off the speed even more difficult.
There is an old line that good horses overcome disadvantages. If Xcellent can overcome that list he will go to a level way beyond good, which we already know he is.
Co-trainer Mike Moroney said Xcellent looked bright when given a trot and canter at Eagle Farm yesterday morning. "He's settled in well and seems fine."
Moroney said the stable would be leaving tactics to rider Michael Coleman.
"Mike knows the horse well -we won't be jamming himfull of instructions.
"It's a matter of watching the racing pattern of the day and picking whether the track is racing even.
"Obviously he needs to be where the ground is best."
It was fine in Brisbane yesterday with a light breeze and predictions that the Eagle Farm track, very heavy midweek, would get back to slow by the official rating time this morning looked to be on target.
Common sense tells you Xcellent cannot overcome his task today even if your heart wills him to do it.
It would take an effort beyond extraordinary. But then beyond extraordinary is a place Xcellent has been to before.
Let's hope.
Xcellent is not the only runner the Moroney brothers have to worry about with track conditions - they also have the A$500,000 Queensland Derby favourite Eskimo Queen having her first start on either a slow or heavy track.
Mike Moroney said he was encouraged the classy filly might cope after she managed a slightly rain-affected surface when winning last week's Queensland Oaks.
"Most of the riders said the footing last week was a genuine dead and in some parts even slow and Greg Childs said Eskimo Queen didn't put a foot wrong in it."
In Eskimo Queen's favour is that she had a relatively light race to win last week.
"I guess the question mark has to be that she's never been asked to back up within a week before, but she's been bouncing around this week and looks very free in her action."
Moroney doesn't have one main danger to Eskimo Queen, citing Bart Cummings' pair Empires Choice and Sirmione along with Theseo, Sands Of Time and his other horse Resolution as the ones to beat.
"Resolution has improved with his recent run at Doomben."
* Waikato dairy farmer Henk Smit will have a keen interest in what Eskimo Queen does this afternoon.
Smit bought the 40ha Cambridge property Mark Todd developed and sold when he made the decision to move to the South Island.
More recently Smit bought the major shareholding in Eskimo Queen's sire Shinko King.
Smit is a geneticist in the dairy and cattle industry and is making his first venture into horse racing.
The magnificent property, which has its own tracks and is about to be re-named Paxton Park, will be managed by Vic Booth and his partner, former jockey Debbie Hughes.
"We will be focusing on pre-training," said Booth.
"We've just finished pre-training Willy Smith for his Melbourne Cup campaign and have sent him to Mark [Todd] in the South Island this week."
THE STRADBROKE
* First staged in 1890 when won by Pyrrhus.
* Notable winners include Rough Habit (1991-92), Dane Ripper (1997), Show A Heart (2002), Private Steer (2003) and Thorn Park (2004).
* 1980 winner Ducatoon was later stripped of the title after returning a positive swab.
* Only two topweights have won the Stradbroke in the past 20 years - Rough Habit 58.5kg (1992) and Campaign King, who also lugged 58.5kg to victory in 1988.
* The most successful trainer is Bart Cummings, who has won the race four times.
* Previous winning jockeys with a ride: Glen Boss, Jim Byrne, Steven King, Jim Cassidy.
