Pat Carey’s hopes of winning the Mornington Cup with Durnford were boosted on Saturday when the emerging stayer won the Prelude at Caulfield.
Durnford’s fast-finishing win in the Listed Mornington Cup Prelude (2000m) delighted Carey but came on a day when all horses racing at Caulfield took a back seat to champion Black Caviar who galloped between races.
Carey pinpointed Saturday’s Caulfield event as an ideal race on the way to the $350,000 Mornington Cup on February 13 and believes Durnford will take some beating.
“It looks ideal for him and this looks to be the natural lead into it,” Carey said.
The Mornington Cup (2400m) carries with it a ballot exemption for this year’s Caulfield Cup but Carey isn’t getting carried away with those ambitions just yet.
“Let’s just aim at Mornington and deal with that and hopefully we can continue to build a career for him beyond that,” he said.
Durnford only broke his maiden status two starts ago over 1600m at Sale but he gave the impression more wins were in store with the way he found the line at Caulfield after jockey Kerrin McEvoy elected to drift back from the outside gate.
Aided by a good tempo, Durnford ($9) closed quickly over the final 200m to beat Tuscan Fire ($6) by a half-neck with another two lengths back to Elusive King ($2.90 fav).
“He’s been a lightly-framed horse but with a bit of maturity he’s come on well and it was a good, strong effort today,” Carey said.
Durnford’s win gave McEvoy a double but came in contrasting style to that of two-year-old Metastasio who led all the way in the Listed Chairman’s Stakes (1100m).
Metastasio’s impressive victory added to Peter Snowden’s Blue Diamond Stakes firepower but didn’t do enough for the trainer to elevate the filly above stablemate Guelph as the team’s leading hope.
“She’s very talented but she did a few things wrong,” Snowden said after Metastasio’s 2-3/4-length win.
“She can’t afford to do that when she meets the A-graders in the Diamond.”
South Australian mare Avoid Lightning is likely to head to the Oakleigh Plate after scoring in the Listed W J Adams Stakes (1000m) while three-year-old Royal Haunt maintained an unbeaten start to his career with a dominant win in the Listed Manfred Stakes (1200m).