KEY POINTS:
No dreadful starting gate gate dramas. no hard luck. just a horse race run as it should be.
And won in the same way by a horse who is clearly the best going around.
In a sport that has been gutted by equine influenza, El Segundo's win in
the Cox Plate on Saturday may end up being regarded as a lesser effort.
That would be tough on a horse who a year ago failed by a few millimetres to win the same race.
It would be unfair on the man who trains him and the jockey who gave him the ride of his life.
For the past two seasons, El Segundo has been on the verge of being hailed a champion.
If not for a couple of vital second placings and a couple of dodgy front legs, he would already have held a position among the very best.
Said his trainer Colin Little: "We have to manage him pretty carefully.
"If we can keep doing that, keep his legs in one piece, he could be around for a while yet."
Some careful management may even get him to England where Little would like to see what he can do against the world's best.
"There is a small chance that we could take him to the Royal meeting next year," he said.
"The tracks there would be that little bit soft, just how he likes them. If I could have him how he was today, he'd go all right."
The Cox Plate may have missed out on the theatre that surrounded last week's Caulfield Cup, in which the first two favourites were scratched at the starting barrier, but it still had its sub-plots.
Luke Nolen, the jockey who imposed a vow of silence on himself for the week before the race, was almost gleeful as he cruised up behind the leaders 400m from home. He was later suspended until after Melbourne 6 for allowing El Segundo to shift in up the home straight.
Wonderful World's run came to an end about 100m short of the winning post and El Segundo put two lengths on him in the run to the line.
In third place was Haradasun with Damien Oliver in the saddle.
Haradasun, valued at A$45 million, provided the only real surprise of the race when Oliver took him to the front 1400m from home, where he stayed until just after straightening.
A group of Irishmen from Coolmore Stud gave Haradasun his value when they paid A$22.5 million for a half-share earlier this year.
They've had plenty of practice in putting on brave faces - so far the horse hasn't won a race for them and has returned a mere A$500,000 on their investment.
The David Hayes camp has been in a similar predicament.
Its star galloper Miss Finland has struggled a bit this preparation. In the only race she has won this season it was Haradasun who she beat.
Miss Finland started favourite on Saturday and finished fourth.
The news was not so good for transtasman trainer Mike Moroney who is wondering what he's done to deserve a run of misfortune.
On a day when Moroney confirmed he would make tomorrow's A$2200 Melbourne Cup third declaration payments for Eskimo Queen and Sarrera, he was still digesting the news his well-performed sprinter Jokers Wild was fighting for his life.
Moroney said Jokers Wild's racing career was over, because of a nasty post-operative infection in his right front leg. The next three days would decide whether he survives at all to stand at stud.
"It's a freak staph [staphylococcus] infection in his blood and he's still not out of the woods yet," said Moroney yesterday.
"But they were a lot happier with him yesterday. The last white cell count they took suggested it may be abating."
The infection stemmed from routine surgery last month on a chipped bone in his fetlock.
Moroney said the infection had eaten away at the cartilage, sesamoid bone and cannon bone.
It required two bouts of surgery within 24 hours to try and save his life at the Ballarat Veterinary Hospital, outside Melbourne, this weekend.
Jokers Wild, a 4-year-old by Black Minnaloushe, was a dual New Zealand Group One winner at two.
The Jokers Wild drama continued a rotten few months for the Moroney stable, culminating in Eskimo Queen's late scratching at the barrier when second favourite for the Caulfield Cup the previous Saturday.
Eskimo Queen's solid Cox Plate sixth to El Segundo cheered Moroney on Saturday.
After consulting with the New Zealand mare's owners, who collected A$100,000, Moroney will press on to the Melbourne Cup after reservations about her ability to run out 3200m.
"[Jockey Craig Newitt] jumped off and said 'that's a great trial for a Melbourne Cup'," Moroney said.
"She's never been tried at the distance but she's only got 50.5kg."
Moroney said Eskimo Queen would most likely go into the Melbourne Cup without another run.
Meanwhile, Cambridge trainer Shaune Ritchie was awaiting veterinary tests on Magic Cape who pulled up "a bit scratchy" after running last .
He would await vet clearances before the Sandown Classic (2400m) on November 17.
- AAP, NZPA
