GREAT Western Cup in January – tick.
Launceston Cup in February – tick.
Adelaide Cup in March – tick.
The Melbourne Cup is now the dream for the proud owners of Excelleration, its trainer Richard Cully and its rider, Swan Hill jockey Harry Coffey.
Coffey, in career-best form after another Group 1 victory, delivered one of the rides of the season at Morphettville to snatch a last-stride victory in the $350,000 Adelaide Cup.
Excelleration has now had three starts in 2024 for three wins, and three cups in three states.
He cost only $6000 at the Adelaide Magic Millions sales five years ago.
If Excelleration is on a roll, it’s nothing compared to Coffey, who just keeps winning the big ones.
The last words in his ears as he left the mounting yard in Adelaide was Cully’s mantra: don’t go around any horses if you can avoid it, and cut the corner into the straight.
Which is what Coffey did, and the ground saved helped him win by a nose.
But things could almost as easily have gone frustratingly wrong.
Coffey was following Zac Spain on Amade when that horse’s iron broke.
Coffey was in awe of Spain’s ability to keep going and, in the end, also get off the fence and finish fourth – at one stage it even looked as though winning was possible.
“I just had to cop my medicine and I actually had him really well relaxed for the type of horse he is, and then Zac’s iron broke and I was like ‘wowee, what am I going to do now?’ because I didn’t know what Zac was going to do and to his credit he tried to ride a race without any irons, and mind you he gave it a good steer because I was following him so I was able to sneak through,” Coffey said.
With everyone now daring to dream about that first Tuesday in November, Coffey is again pleased to be a naturally lightweight rider.
“They were keen to give me a go, the owners and Richie (Cully), just being down in the weights and my ability to ride light at the drop of a hat and my success that I’ve had in Tasmania, they gave me a go and luckily enough I went down,” Coffey said.
“He’s a classy horse and Richie’s a brilliant trainer, he knows what he’s doing so we were a little bit unsure whether we were going to come to Adelaide just with the two weeks between runs but, as you’ve seen, it was the right idea.”
Now another, iconic two-mile handicap is on the agenda for the gelding, who will likely be freshened up for a tilt at the Andrew Ramsden Stakes in May, which offers the winner Melbourne Cup ballot exemption.
Cully said, without getting carried away, “it would be silly to not think about November”.
“You don’t get to many chances at (the Melbourne Cup) and while it was never a question to me about the two miles, at least he’s ticked the box now.
“A good friend of mine in Melbourne is a bit of a form guru and he thinks he could run top 10 in a Melbourne Cup off 52kg.
“We’ll count back and see if we can find a race that gets us straight in.
“Maybe the race in May, the Ramsden, could be an option.
“It’s a good spot to be in, trying to work out how you get a run in a Melbourne Cup.
“He was only 50-50 to run in the Adelaide Cup because I was looking at the Roy Higgins (Quality) and thinking the 2600m with a month between runs (since the Launceston Cup) looked like a suitable option, but when the weights came out for the Adelaide Cup, I thought it would be an insult if we didn’t take our chance with that weight.
“We can say we pulled the right rein now.”
