Racing: Victory whets taste for Cup

Xcellent got a sniff of the Melbourne Cup.

So did his connections.

The New Zealand wonder galloper got his nose into one of the world's greatest sporting trophies at Hastings on Saturday as the A$80,000 Melbourne Cup continued its world promotional trip in advance of the great Australian raceday on November 1.

Fifty-five minutes later his New Zealand owners took a giant step towards owning that historic Cup when Xcellent blew his rivals off the Hastings racetrack with a stunning winning performance in the Kelt Capital Stakes.

The owners got their hands on the biggest slice of the $1 million stake on offer, but it is to Australia and then to the world that they were immediately looking.

Remarkably, Xcellent, over the next 13 months, will race for $21.3 million in a campaign that will have five main targets.

Immediately he is looking at the A$3 million Cox Plate then the A$5 million Melbourne Cup.

Beyond that there is the 2400m turf race at the Dubai World Cup meeting in March, which has a winning stake of US$3 million, said managing part-owner Paul Moroney.

He will then be spelled, look at the Kelt Capital next year then on to the Japan Cup in late November. The Japan Cup stake for 2006 has not been announced but will not be less than $6.5 million.

Australian bookmakers, already wary of Xcellent, reacted sharply to his winning performance, shortening him into second favourite at $7 for the Cox Plate behind Australians' darling mare Makybe Diva, winner of the last two Melbourne Cups.

"There is not a horse in Australia that can sprint like Xcellent when he takes off," said Brian Taylor of Melbourne betting agency Doublebet.

Makybe Diva brilliantly won Saturday's A$500,000 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington and has shortened even further into $2.50 in the Cox Plate.

The outstanding mare came around the field six and seven wide on the home bend and beat Lad Of The Manor as she liked.

The prospect of Xcellent and Makybe Diva clashing in the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup is a transtasman promoter's dream.

Paul Moroney is aware of the respect Australian bookmakers have for Xcellent, but knows commentators across the Tasman will play down Saturday's win, particularly as veteran Distinctly Secret finished second.

"You can hear them saying it now: 'Distinctly Secret was running in his fourth Kelt Capital and is ready for the pension and Waitoki Dream, who is he, he went to Brisbane and was beaten'.

"I hope they do take that line because it will take pressure off us."

Rider Michael Coleman said the 1 1/4 margin flattered the others.

"He actually got to the front too soon. He sprinted from the corner so quickly that he was clear in front in the centre of the track and it became a bit of a joke to him, he knew he had the race won.

"In the last 150m he was zig-zagging a bit."

Reese Jones on Distinctly Secret said the same.

"It might have looked for a moment halfway down the straight that my bloke was going to make a race of it, but if I'd got even close to Xcellent all it would have done is make him concentrate and go again.

"But my bloke's gone terrific - it took a champion to beat him."

Distinctly Secret, a previous Kelt winner, had been racing below his best for 18 months or so, but trainer Mark Walker knew last week he finally had the gelding back to his best.

"I thought it was a wonderful effort - there was a fair way back to the rest of them."

There was comment that Distinctly Secret was responsible for the home turn interference that saw Xcellent turned sideways for several strides, but the push clearly came from Cedar Manor and Grant Cooksley inside the pair.

"He had his backside turned sideways, but it made no difference," said Coleman. "He was going that fast at the time that he was away from it and gone almost as soon as it happened."