Promising three-year-old Eliud is expected to relish the step up to a middle distance when he makes his Australian debut on Saturday.
The Tony Pike-trained son of Almanzor earned a trip to Melbourne off the back of a brace of domestic victories and travelled over without incident last Wednesday.
“He has been nominated for Mahogany Series and will run at Flemington in the three-year-old 2000m race,” Pike said.
“Should he go as expected on Saturday, the final is two weeks later over 2500m.”
Eliud opened his current preparation with a runner-up finish and has subsequently posted effortless victories over 1400 and 1600m.
“Obviously, his maiden win was against pretty weak company at New Plymouth and then he beat a couple of pretty handy three-year-olds (Bozo and Loch Katrine) at Wanganui,” Pike said.
“There’s nothing really left here for him at this point of time, so while he’s on the way up we thought we’d give him the chance at the series in Melbourne.
“They do it well for those early winter horses and Blake Shinn has been booked to ride him.”
Eliud was a $320,000 Karaka purchase out of breeder Valachi Downs’ draft and is a son of the Listed Dunedin Gold Cup (2400m) winner Pendleton.
The Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) and Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) winner Viewed also features on his pedigree page.
“He’s bred to stay all day and has been really strong at both ends of his races to be fair,” Pike said.
“He’s put a good margin over them late in his races up to a mile so 2000m should suit.”
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