Colin Little says injury-prone El Segundo is as good as he can get him in his bid for his second Cox Plate victory at Moonee Valley on Saturday.The 2007 winner and runner-up to Fields Of Omagh in 2006 is trying to become the 13th multiple winner of Australasia's weight-for-age championship, the latest to do it being Fields Of Omagh who won the race for the first time in 2003."He's probably as good as I can get him," Little said of the eight-year-old Pins gelding."I've made no secret of the fact

Colin Little says injury-prone El Segundo is as good as he can get him in his bid for his second Cox Plate victory at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

The 2007 winner and runner-up to Fields Of Omagh in 2006 is trying to become the 13th multiple winner of Australasia's weight-for-age championship, the latest to do it being Fields Of Omagh who won the race for the first time in 2003.

"He's probably as good as I can get him," Little said of the eight-year-old Pins gelding.

"I've made no secret of the fact that we've targeted this race and he's been in work since June.

"He went up to Peter Morgan's walking machine for a couple of months and eventually came back to me and we are only a couple of sleeps away from where we aim to be.

"His coat looks a hell of a lot better than it looked three weeks ago.

"He's exactly the same weight (just under 500kg) as he was when he won and I had the luxury of being able to do exactly what I wanted him to do because we were under no pressure, we had plenty of time and if the track was rain affected and I didn't wish to work him I didn't have to.

"He's been to Moonee Valley for a gallop and worked on the course proper at Caulfield and he's basically worked on perfect surfaces this whole preparation so we've done all we can and it's up to the horse now."

Due to leg injuries, El Segundo has been restricted to just six starts since his Cox Plate victory and hasn't been able to win although he was an encouraging third in the Aurie's Star Hcp (1200m) at Flemington when resuming on August 8.

Little described his fourth run in as very disappointing when 12th to Efficient in the Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 3 last start.

But there was an excuse as the horse had sustained a little nick on the eyeball caused by something hitting him during the race.

Little said the eye had healed within 36 hours.

"We're pretty happy to be there and we want to be really competitive and I think he will be. We're not running him just for the sake of running in three Cox Plates," Little said.

"I just think he's coming good at the right time and he looks the part and he's certainly enthusiastic. He had a pretty rousing gallop here Caulfield Cup morning on the fence on the course proper and it certainly sparked him up a bit.

"And we've seen a bit of the old horse back this week. He's laying his ears back and baring his teeth at anything that gets remotely near him and that's what he normally does when he's on top of his game."

Little said he was keen to get El Segundo back to Moonee Valley where he has performed so well on the StrathAyr surface.

The Caulfield trainer said a lot of the credit for getting El Segundo to the Cox Plate should go to his staff as he could not devote all of his time to training due to the battle his wife Jacquie had to endure with a brain tumour which claimed her life in late August.

"It's been a tough year for me, my staff have basically done all the work," he said.

Little said while he was at the track in the mornings, he couldn't be there all day until the last month when he was able to spend 100 per cent of his time on the horse.