KEY POINTS:
New Zealand will find it difficult to win a Melbourne Cup in the next decade or so.
The Europeans are becoming increasingly interested in the great race.
Aidan O'Brien, the man everyone says is the world's best trainer, and the equally talented Luca Cumani, say they won't rest until they've won it.
Winning connections of New Zealand stayers, in the heat of winning emotion at home, often say they'll aim their horse towards this or next year's Melbourne Cup.
Most are living on the lifeblood of horse racing - dreams.
But Everswindell might be a chance.
Notably, trainer John Sargent didn't utter a word about Melbourne Cups after Everswindell scored her dashing win in Saturday's $220,000 Christchurch Casino New Zealand Cup.
But the Matamata trainer admitted yesterday he was thinking about it in the Riccarton birdcage.
When you think of 3200m stayers you think dogged staying power.
And, yes, stamina is a definite pre-requisite.
But to win at the top level, like a Melbourne Cup, a horse also requires a sprinting finish out of the ordinary.
Everswindell definitely possesses one.
There is no way of measuring this, but the dash the mare showed when Noel Harris finally extracted her from an awkward spot behind a wall of horses in midfield at the 300m is quite possibly the fastest last section of a New Zealand Cup ever.
"I didn't think she could get up from where she was," said Sargent, who had thought Everswindell close enough to a good thing before the race.
And yet one part of the Sargent consciousness probably thought the mare could.
"She's got that much pace that if she hadn't been nominated for the Cup, I'd have been just as happy running her in the Coupland's Mile at the meeting."
To be a chance in a Melbourne Cup, Everswindell would need two very important elements in her favour - she would need to get into the race at a reasonable weight.
Stand alongside Everswindell and she's a massive tank, but weight is the all important factor in 3200m racing, and that is accentuated in Melbourne Cups, which are run at a remarkably high cruising speed with a big sprint from the 700m. It is blowtorch racing at its best and it's found a lot of horses out.
And big weights have brought many good horses undone at Flemington.
The second factor is getting horses ready for 3200m in the first week of November during wet New Zealand springs.
"I'd have to bring her in a lot earlier than this year because she takes so long to get fit," said Sargent yesterday.
While a little difficult, that is only a management issue.
A lot to think about, but then how many times do you get to race for A$5 million-plus? Sargent says he couldn't imagine anything better than winning a Melbourne Cup for the 28-strong syndicate that races Everswindell.
"They're marvellous. We've got all sorts from the chairman of Thoroughbred Racing [his brother Guy], to a bloke who cleans offices in Auckland in the evenings."
The syndicate is having a ball.
"They've got $170,000 in the bin from the mare and they told me yesterday I could have it for the fun they got out of the win.
"I don't think they meant it, though."
If there is one jockey you want on in an awkward situation late in a 3200m race it's Noel Harris.
You simply cannot panic him and the older, cool head became valuable in finding, then forcing, the gap with Everswindell.
Harris was charged by stewards with careless riding for the inter-ference he caused to Hobes as he forged through the gap, but that was thrown out by the Judicial Control Authority.
There is a third attribute required to win a Melbourne Cup and it's called constitution.
Everswindell showed she has that in abundance.
"When we put her on the float for the trip home there wasn't one bit of feed left in the bin," said John Sargent.
Sargent will monitor the mare's progress, but the likelihood is that after a week in the paddock at home she will start being prepared for the Wellington Cup in January, by which point Noel Harris will be 53.
The veteran almost certainly thought his unplaced Melbourne Cup finish on Princess Coup two weeks ago was his final chance to win a Melbourne Cup.
Perhaps not.
* In an adjourned inquiry, Chris Johnson was suspended for eight racedays on Saturday for the interference he caused on winner Final Reality in Wednesday's $270,000 Coupland's Bakeries Mile at Riccarton. Johnson will resume after December 6. He was also fined $1500.
The group one $200,000 Zabeel Classic is the next main target for Wahid after the horse was a late scratching from the Coupland's last Wednesday.
The pre-post favourite was withdrawn when it became clear track conditions were not going to improve significantly from the initial rating of slow.
Taranaki trainer Allan Sharrock said Wahid would be aimed at the Zabeel Classic (2000m) at Ellerslie on December 26 and would probably race twice beforehand in preparation for it.
