For the last two weeks trainer Annabel Neasham has had two runners hovering close to the cut-off line in the Order Of Entry for the $2 million Magic Millions Classic with the threat of not making the final field very much in play.
Ultimately, both Excel D’Or and Empress of Wonder did survive the cut making Neasham one of three trainers to have more than one horse in the race.
With the chase for places in the final field being so competitive, with connections trying to win races left, right and centre in the lead-up, it is quite incredible to note that both of the Neasham qualifiers are still Maidens, having contested five races between them without a win.
To her credit, Excel D’Or did finish second and then third in feature races (in the Listed Calaway Girl and the Group 3 Bruce McLachlan) in her first two career starts before again finishing third as a beaten favourite in the Gold Pearl at the Gold Coast last Saturday … but is winless, nevertheless.
For her part, the chestnut Empress Of Wonder also showed to good advantage in her two starts to date, firstly finishing second on debut in a Group 3 Ottawa Stakes at Flemington and then finishing second in the Calaway Gal, also as a beaten favourite, when beating Excel D’Or home by just under half-a-length.
The take out from that is that Neasham obviously thought enough of these two horses to place them in that sort of company early and, while they have yet to earn the desired result, the thought behind Neasham’s placement of these horses and the fact that, as with all two-year-olds, those runs could well have brought them on in leaps and bounds, means they should not be written off without due consideration … even if the barrier draws of sixteen and twenty-one for Express Of Wonder and Excel D’Or respectively might have taken taken a bit of the gloss off the moment.
To win the Magic Millions Two-Year-Old Classic with a Maiden seems an unlikely scenario, but that is exactly what Neasham is in it to try to do.
A hugely difficult task to be sure, but, if you want to doubt a trainer who has a horse like Zaaki … with his fourteen wins and $9.4 million banked in prize-money … on her list of credits, you do so at your own peril.
