Jet Away, formerly trained by Sir Henry Cecil, impressed on his Australian debut
Jet Away, formerly trained by Sir Henry Cecil, will be aimed at the Caulfield Cup after an impressive Australian debut.
Last Updated: 17/03/13 11:16am
A winner of six starts for the legendary Newmarket handler, Jet Away has his new trainer David Hayes dreaming of a third Caulfield Cup win following his brilliant victory in the $150,000 Yalumba Golden Mile at Bendigo this weekend.
The European import could hardly have been more impressive on his Australian debut, storming home from the rear to score a dominant victory in the one mile event.
The six-year-old son of Cape Cross reproduced the form that saw him defeat Melbourne Cup runner-up Fiorente over 10 furlongs at Goodwood last year and Hayes said it was an important win for his Spring prospects.
"We hope he's a Caulfield Cup horse," Hayes told www.racingvictoria.net.au. "These days when they're lowly-rated you've just got to get their rating up to get them in the Cups.
"On what I've seen him do at Lindsay Park, and in trials, he looks a weight-for-age horse to me and he showed that today because that was a pretty good field."
Jet Away launched a powerful finish from the back to score running away in the signature event on Victoria's only stand-alone regional Saturday raceday.
The entire was given time to settle by in-form jockey Stephen Baster early and tracked fellow import Ranked entering the straight, but quickly went past the heavily-backed favourite.
Jet Away rounded up his rivals inside the final half furlong before cruising home by one and a quarter lengths from Zabisco, who edged out Prizum for second placing.
Baster was taken by the win of Jet Away, who has now won seven of his 17 starts. "The horse raced a little bit fresh but when he came out (at the top of the straight) he let go really well," Baster said.
"Not many of them (imports) come over here and do that over a mile, so it was pretty impressive. If he can keep that consistency going up to 2000 and further he's going to be very hard to beat in whatever he runs in."
While October's $2.5 million BMW Caulfield Cup is the main aim, Hayes will send Jet Away to the Easter Cup at Caulfield in two weeks before a possible trip to Sydney for the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on 27 April.