KEY POINTS:
Mark down Pasta Post as a Melbourne Cup horse.
Precious few New Zealand horses are good enough to win the Melbourne Cup and beat Flemington's international raiders.
Pasta Post is one of them.
Don't for one moment underestimate what it took from Pasta Post to explode away from a field of tough, seasoned stayers at just his eighth race start. Horses simply don't do that.
Tears flowed as Pasta Post dashed clear in the home straight in the $200,000 Don Ha City of Auckland Cup.
Craig Grylls' mother, Leigh, cried and father Gary saved his tears until he embraced his son in the birdcage after the cup presentation.
Grylls senior rode 1250 career winners before a 2006 retirement and got more excited watching his son win yesterday than after any of them.
"I nearly went through the floor in the grandstand."
Seventeen-year-old Craig Grylls was under a lot of pressure having his first raceday ride on Pasta Post.
But if he felt that pressure it didn't show. The impressive teenager produced his traditional modesty.
"Anyone could have won on that horse today," said Grylls as he climbed off the birdcage weigh-in scales.
He knew he had the race won a long way out.
"I had a real full tank of gas on the home bend. Once I let him go he just exploded."
More tears flowed from Sean Collins, who had ridden Pasta Post in all his lead-up races, but couldn't make yesterday's 52.5kg weight.
The excitement of the performance overrode Collins' disappointment.
"It actually wasn't that hard to watch," he said.
"I starting crying when Craig shot clear on him."
Co-trainer Graeme Sanders tries to maintain a measured approach even after a major win, but you could detect a slight vein of excitement when he summed up Pasta Post.
"This horse just keeps surprising us - he keeps stepping up.
"If he stays sound he could do an awful lot."
A few years ago Sanders pulled a few friends together and convinced them to form Sapphire Bloodstock, essentially to invest in young horses and market them for sale. They race Pasta Post now only because he failed a veterinary inspection for an overseas sale.
Tauranga publican Frank Wade and Gary Williams joined Sapphire Bloodstock in the Pasta Post ownership.
Joy Robinson, one of the Sapphire syndicate members, is secretary for Cambridge trainer Roger James.
Her husband, Mac, is the Matamata milkman. He also assists some mornings at the stable of Cambridge harness trainer Nicky Chilcott.
"I was at the stable at 6 this morning and I'm supposed to be delivering milk at 4.30 tomorrow morning."
Best of luck with that. When the syndicate headed off Ellerslie it looked like it was going to be a long night.
Everswindell impressed storming home for second, just ahead of a brave Spin Around, who set up most of the pace.
Matamata trainer John Sargent is now counting the days until the Wellington Cup on January 26 after Everswindell's effort.
But he's confident his New Zealand Cup winner will be even tougher to beat when she strikes the roomy Trentham surface this month.
"I think she is a bit better that way round."
Sargent said Everswindell would have her final cup tune-up in the Trentham Stakes (2400m) on January 19. He said Everswindell didn't help herself yesterday when the pace slackened through the initial stages.
"She pulled a shade and ended up third last on the turn."
Topweight Spin Around almost pulled off a memorable hat-trick and proved punters got it wrong by deserting him.
The brave Counties and Avondale Cup winner only crumbled inside the final 100m for a close-up third.
