Racing: Red hot fancy builds pressure

All week Mike Moroney hasn't looked at Xcellent's $1.85 odds on the TAB website.

The odds are the only thing that tightens his gut with pressure.

The high-profile, transtasman horse trainer has produced a remarkable 31 group-one winners, but nothing has pushed up the gauge like that $1.85.

Moroney is all too aware that this afternoon he has the favourite for New Zealand's richest horse race.

If Xcellent wins well, his next start will almost certainly be in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

And if he runs exceptionally well in that he could even start favourite in Australia's richest race, the A$5 million Melbourne Cup.

Producing the Melbourne Cup favourite is not conducive to sleep. Mike Moroney is 47 and says he will probably feel 67 on Melbourne Cup morning.

"And I hope I feel 107 the next morning."

Being favourite shouldn't produce additional pressure, but ask any horse trainer, it does.

Part of that is knowing everyone is watching. Scrutinising. Every microscope in the world comes out and if a mistake is made, there is nowhere to hide.

Moroney is all too aware that Melbourne Cup pressure is crushing, even though he's won the big race with Brew.

"It's a race on the world stage these days - the rest of the world is watching."

When Moroney went into the 2000 Cup with Brew and Second Coming, the pressure was off because neither horse was in the first five favourites.

Moroney learned a lot about big-race nerves training in partnership with champion trainer Dave O'Sullivan, who was never without a good horse.

The lesson he says is to underplay everything - not easy with the $1.85 Kelt favourite and impossible in a Melbourne Cup.

Melbourne Cup press coverage in Australia gives new meaning to the word saturation.

Producing the winner of Australia's great race is all about being absolutely 100 per cent right on the day.

"We went into the 2000 Cup knowing we had one horse [Brew] dead right and the other [Second Coming] a bit off his game.

"One horse got the blessed run and Second Coming was caught three deep then in front on the home bend, because there were no other options."

Moroney and training partner Andrew Scott are delighted with the progress of Xcellent going into today's feature.

"I've been back in New Zealand 12 days and I can't fault the horse - he's great.

"The time between runs [five weeks] means we have had to put the pressure on him, but he's handled it."

The only horse Moroney will compare Xcellent to is Happyanunoit, unbeaten from his stable as a 2-year-old in New Zealand and who was beaten by a wet track in Sydney's Champagne Stakes when a short half head behind Dracula. She was sold to the United States soon afterwards and became a multiple grade one winner there.

"I only had her for a short time and before she came to her real best, but she's the only one I'd mention in the same breath as Xcellent. For sheer raw talent he's exceptional."

All Moroney hopes for today is an absence of bad luck.

Getting the desired passage is what it's all about.

"We've all had several horses that should have won a group-one race that didn't get the right run."

Brother Paul Moroney still has three racing wishes - to win the Golden Slipper, to have a runner in a Cox Plate and to have a horse good enough to campaign internationally in Mike Moroney's care.

Should Xcellent live up to expectations, the Kelt will be just the next step of a journey which will take him all over the world to races such as the Cox Plate, Melbourne Cup, Japan Cup, Dubai World Cup, then on to Europe and maybe even the United States.