Racing: Historic treble looms for Railings

MELBOURNE - Railings is two-thirds of the way towards becoming the first horse to win the Metropolitan Handicap-Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup treble in the same year after his last-gasp win in the Caulfield leg on Saturday.

The closest any horse has come to winning the treble was the New Zealand-bred Redcraze, who won the Metropolitan and Caulfield Cup in 1956 before finishing second to Evening Peal in the Melbourne Cup.

Railings showed the staying tenacity in his win on Saturday to suggest he will be a leading contender in the A$5 million ($5.47 million) Melbourne Cup on November 1. Australian bookmakers dropped him as low as $6 for the Melbourne Cup.

Victorian handicapper Greg Carpenter will have his say on the matter today, when he will allocate the 4-year-old a re-handicap for winning the Caulfield Cup. Most expect it to be 2kg which would take his Melbourne Cup weight to 54kg.

Expatriate New Zealand jockey Greg Childs, who rode Railings on Saturday, has no doubt the horse is a leading Melbourne Cup chance and would have no problem with the 3200m distance. "He won the Caulfield Cup in good fashion and he hit the line hard," Childs said. "The staying ability is there and he can run two miles on his ear."

Childs, whose ride on the horse in the Melbourne Cup depends on whether Sydney trainer John Hawkes prefers his stable's top jockey, Darren Beadman, said Railings over-raced a little early and the effort would do him a world of good.

The win was Childs' second in the Caulfield Cup after scoring aboard Northerly in 2002. It was the rider's 65th group one win, the majority of them achieved since he left New Zealand 15 years ago.

Hawkes said yesterday he had to peak Railings earlier than he had wanted for the Metropolitan to qualify for the Melbourne Cup.

"Now it is up to me to try and keep him on that plateau for just over two weeks and if we can I am sure he will be in the mix," he told Melbourne radio station Sport 927.

Railings has a strong New Zealand background.

He caught prominent trainer Roger James' eye as a youngster when James was commissioned to look for a Zabeel stayer for prominent Auckland owner Gerard Peterson and United States-based Kiwi businessman Owen Glenn.

They paid $300,000 for the colt out of the mare La Suffragette, an unraced Palace Music mare, whose dam was the great mare Emancipation.

James would have trained Railings, but the horse went to Hawkes when James closed down his Melbourne stable to concentrate on his New Zealand operation.

Tony Pistikakis is a member of the syndicate. He is long-time friend of Hawkes and a friend and neighbour of Childs. It was Pistikakis who persuaded Hawkes to give Childs the Caulfield Cup ride.

"John is my best friend," said Pistikakis. "My dream was to win a group one race with John before I die."

- NZPA

Cup hero

* Railings completed a rare double in the Caulfield Cup and is now aiming at a unique treble.

* He was heavily backed throughout Australia to win Saturday's race.

* Kiwi jockey Greg Childs is not certain to retain the mount for the Melbourne Cup.

* The race was marred by third-placed Mummify having to be put down after breaking his leg.