Durston lands the Newcastle Cup

James Mcdonald joked that he may have locked in his Melbourne Cup ride too early after Durston took out the Newcastle Cup.

Success in the Group 3 race over 2300m on Friday followed Durston’s win in the Listed Wyong Cup (2100m) on September 2.

McDonald earlier in the week announced he was riding Loft in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington on November 1.

The German-bred stayer, prepared by Marcel Weiss, has 55.5kg in the Melbourne Cup as McDonald looks to land a second straight win in the ‘Race That Stops A Nation’ after guiding Verry Elleegant to victory last year.

Durston is entered for Group 1 assignments in the weeks ahead including The Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick on October 1, the Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 15 and the Melbourne Cup.

The Chris Waller-trained stayer has 50kg in all three races but is eligible for a penalty.

Durston is unbeaten in two starts since a norton bit was applied to the stayer prior to the Wyong Cup.

Whereas McDonald looped the field at Wyong, he took the shortest way home on Friday as Durston ($4.20) raced to a 3-½ length win from Carif ($19) with Arapaho ($7.50) in third place.

“He’s a really nice horse,” McDonald told Sky Thoroughbred Central.

“He put the writing on the wall at Wyong but his work on Tuesday was really glowing.

“He hadn’t gone backwards, certainly had gone forward, and I was pretty excited to come here and ride him today thinking he would be pretty hard to beat.”

McDonald said getting onto slightly firmer footing in his past couple of starts had been beneficial for Durston.

“He gets you out of trouble as he’s got a great turn of foot.

“Barrier one is sometimes a blessing as you don’t have too many options and you have to take what is in front of you.

“He’s a real progressive horse. I might have locked in too early.”