Melbourne Cup dreaming will begin a little early for connections of the imported galloper Deakin, who is set to make his Australian debut early next month.
Deakin, who was formerly trained by Joseph O’Brien in Ireland, has been in training for some weeks with Phillip Stokes at Pakenham, who reported the five-year-old son of Australia was not only a natural stayer.
“He’s got a good turn of foot,” Stokes said of Deakin, who is raced by Terry Henderson’s OTI Racing.
“I told Terry I’d get him to next year’s Melbourne Cup.”
Stokes said Deakin was already a well-developed stayer and one who should be capable of finding his best form in his opening campaign.
“In terms of where he’s at, he seems miles ahead of horses like Daqiansweet Junior at the same stage, so there’s plenty to work with,” Stokes said.
“He’s been galloping with Amade and while he’s not a great trackworker, Deakin has been coming along well.”
The now-retired Daqiansweet Junior, who was also raced by OTI, twice ran boldly in Melbourne Cups, finishing sixth in 2022 and fifth last year.
Deakin was raced by OTI Racing in Ireland with the idea of bringing the horse out to Australia to develop him into a Melbourne Cup horse. He won his maiden over 2313 metres in Ireland last year when ridden by Dylan Brown McMonagle, who rode the horse in eight of his nine European starts.
“He obviously stays but he’s got that turn of foot, so I am really looking forward to getting him going and seeing where he can take us,” Stokes said.
Deakin, who finished second in a 1200-metre trial at Moe a month ago, won two of his nine starts when trained by O’Brien, with his latest run coming in a 2400-metre listed race in Ireland, where he started favourite but slipped at the start and finished unplaced.
Stokes said Deakin will start off in a lowly ranked race before hopefully making his way to the top.
“He’ll start in a benchmark race over 1600 metres in a week or so and then go to 2000 metres and then maybe beyond that,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a tricky time to have him in as we might look at a race like the Adelaide Cup (in March) and even the Sydney Cup (April) before we spell him and get ready for the spring.”
The above is an excerpt of Andrew Eddy’s Racing.com article and can be read here.