Imported galloper Kelinni is favourite for the Sydney Cup but unlike many Australian staying races the colonial influence is strong.
Evergreen stallion Zabeel is represented on Saturday by three runners – Maluckyday, Tremec and Macedonian – and a win would give him his 43rd individual Group One winner, just two short of the Australasian record of his sire Sir Tristram.
A rising 27-year-old, Zabeel is still active in the breeding barn and will again serve a select band of brood mares in 2013 at $NZ100,000 at New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud.
After the declaration of the final field on Wednesday, Kelinni was at $3.20 and Maluckyday at $4.40 with Tremec on the third line of betting alongside another European Julienas.
Kelinni earned his spot at the top of the market with victory in Saturday’s JRA Plate, a race that has produced just one Cup winner in recent years, Tie The Knot in 1999.
Trainer Chris Waller had hoped Kelinni, who ran fourth in last year’s Melbourne Cup, could win one of the autumn weight-for-age races but the closest he came was fourth in the BMW (2400m).
“I thought he could run in the first three and he came fourth,” Waller said.
“He ran in the JRA Plate because he needed to. We could have given him a trial but to justify going to the Cup he really needed to race.”
Waller first ventured overseas looking for tried staying horses a few years ago, not to win Cup races but to win any races.
“I couldn’t afford to buy yearlings,” he said.
“This was a way to get the maximum results for owners. All except one of the horses we bought from overseas has won races.
“They are getting more expensive now but they have been good for our stable.”
Maluckyday finished sixth in the BMW, not far behind Kelinni and was given a barrier trial to prepare him for his Cup assignment.
His owner Nick Moraitis has been a fan of Zabeel over the years and raced the stallion’s first Melbourne Cup winner Might And Power who won in 1997.
Maluckyday ran second to French horse Americain in 2010.
Both Waller and Moraitis have expressed their concerns over the prize money of $500,000 on offer for Sydney’s premier staying event.
The 3200m race is the only other event apart from the $6.5 million Melbourne Cup which still carries Group One status in Australia while the Auckland Cup is the only Group One over the distance in New Zealand.
“It’s a shame it isn’t worth more,” Waller said. “We have a $2 million BMW as the lead-up and then it falls away.”
