Mark Kavanagh is after his second Easter Cup win in the last three runnings of the Group Three event with recent stable acquisition Raffaello at Caulfield on Saturday.The Flemington trainer won the 2000m feature with Maldivian in 2007 and that gelding went on to Cox Plate glory last spring.Kavanagh might not have such lofty ambitions with Raffaello but he has a good opinion of the Encosta De Lago four-year-old and will put him away for the spring after Saturday's race.Raffaello came to Kavanagh
Mark Kavanagh is after his second Easter Cup win in the last three runnings of the Group Three event with recent stable acquisition Raffaello at Caulfield on Saturday.
The Flemington trainer won the 2000m feature with Maldivian in 2007 and that gelding went on to Cox Plate glory last spring.
Kavanagh might not have such lofty ambitions with Raffaello but he has a good opinion of the Encosta De Lago four-year-old and will put him away for the spring after Saturday's race.
Raffaello came to Kavanagh after his part-owner and breeder Jim Marconi gave away training early this year and distributed his horses to other stables.
The entire had won four races including three in town from 25 starts before joining the Kavanagh team for which he has raced three times for two wins and is chasing a hat-trick on Saturday.
Second-up after a seven-week break Raffaello won over 1400m at Sandown before beating Light Vision by 2-1/4 lengths over 1700m at Caulfield on March 28 and Kavanagh admitted to being pleasantly surprised with the progress of the horse.
"He's gone ahead in leaps and bounds and his sectionals the other day were just tremendous, so hopefully he can do it again," Kavanagh said.
"He went home in 44 and a tick for his last 800m, that's pretty good for a horse going into a 2000-metre race."
While Raffaello meets Light Vision 5.5kg worse for their meeting at Caulfield, Kavanagh is confident he can again beat the Robert Smerdon-trained five-year-old who drops 3.5kg to 57kg.
"My bloke is hard and fit. He does meet him worse, there's no doubt about that, but at the end of the day I think I'd rather be betting on the harder and fitter horse."
Topweight Light Vision, who has won 10 of 31 starts from 1600m to 2520m, should be nearing his peak at his third run this campaign.
The Colin Little stable will be relying on Blutigeroo in the Easter Cup as stablemate Ista Kareem has been scratched and will run in the Group Two Chairman's Hcp (2600m) at Randwick.
The Leon Corstens-trained The Wolverine has also been scratched to run in the Octagonal Hcp (1600m) at Randwick.
Those withdrawals leave a field of 10 with Raffaello the $3.50 favourite with TAB Sportsbet ahead of Light Vision at $3.80, Miss Maren at $5 and Renewable and Just Look next best at $9.50.
The John Sadler-trained Renewable is being prepared for the Group One Sydney Cup (3200m) at Randwick on April 25 and is coming back in distance after successive 2500m victories in the Moonee Valley Night Cup and the Roy Higgins Quality at Flemington.
The Zabeel seven-year-old is quoted at $12 in the Sydney Cup.
Just Look, prepared by Lyn Tolson at Mornington, is racing in terrific form having run third to Largo Lad in the Group Two Blamey Stakes (1600m) at Flemington followed by his long neck win over Easter Cup rival Down Under Boy in the Yarra Valley Cup (1950m) on March 29.