LIKE A football coach, Mark Kavanagh rarely likes to look too far ahead. But tomorrow, as his reigning Melbourne Cup champion Shocking tackles the group 1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield, Kavanagh will dare to ponder what another surprise win could mean for the horse, reports Andrew Eddy in The Age.His report adds: Kavanagh yesterday declared the 1800-metre Underwood Stakes was far from Shocking's grand final - that comes again on Melbourne Cup day - but he conceded that victory in such a time-hon
LIKE A football coach, Mark Kavanagh rarely likes to look too far ahead. But tomorrow, as his reigning Melbourne Cup champion Shocking tackles the group 1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield, Kavanagh will dare to ponder what another surprise win could mean for the horse, reports Andrew Eddy in The Age.
His report adds: Kavanagh yesterday declared the 1800-metre Underwood Stakes was far from Shocking's grand final - that comes again on Melbourne Cup day - but he conceded that victory in such a time-honoured weight-for-age event would open new doors for the horse. As well as earn a pot of gold for his owner Laurence Eales. ''He's an entire. We are aware of that,'' Kavanagh said of the five-year-old.
Two weeks ago, Shocking became a weight-for-age winner for the first time when, at $21, he kept his unbeaten record at Flemington alive in the 1600-metre Makybe Diva (formerly Craiglee) Stakes. That win alone meant he was suddenly in the sights of breeders, who had previously overlooked him as a stallion prospect simply because he had won a Melbourne Cup.
But after his super finish to win the Makybe Diva Stakes last month, the breeding industry is starting to question whether Shocking, who is by one of the world's great dual hemisphere stallions Street Cry, is more than just a two-mile stayer. He may well be an elite weight-for-age performer that just happened to win a handicap over 3200 metres.