CAMELOT BEATEN BUT NOT BOWED

He may not have won but Russian Camelot showed why he was installed as favourite for the Cox Plate after just five starts when he suffered a wide run and was only narrowly beaten by the well-backed Fierce Impact in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.

In a race marred by a mid-race injury to last year's winner Gatting, Fierce Impact was given a lovely ride by Mark Zahra just off the pace and he finished too strongly to make it a second elite-level win after scoring in the Cantala Stakes over the same course last spring.

As for Russian Camelot, he was caught wide throughout and he went to the leaders before the turn out in the middle of the track. Fierce Impact ran by him in the later stages, but notably he was fighting back again right on the line.

Trainer Danny O'Brien said: "He was obviously wide and without cover, but it was probably the only option from that gate and as it was he avoided all that interference when the horse broke down in the back half of the field.

"He was beaten by a top-class miler, who's a three-time Group 1 winner at a mile now and he's been beaten a neck, so for a first-up performance for the spring, I don't think we could ask for much more.

"Without winning, he really couldn't have gone any better.

"There wasn't much speed and I don't think Damien (Oliver) could have ridden him differently, he did the right thing to worry about the horse and how he was travelling rather than trying to get some cover.

"He was beaten by a good horse in Fierce Impact and I suppose we were the most vulnerable at the mile first-up. Fierce Impact probably put a length on him and he really fought back."

Russian Camelot, who had issues with his barrier manners during his first preparation and had to be scratched from one race, gave connections a scare before the race when he was backed out of the race and vetted.

"Hopefully it's just a freshness thing because he paraded well," O'Brien said.

"It's just as though he went into the gates and bounced around, it was just nervous energy."

O'Brien said Russian Camelot will most likely take two-week breaks into his next handful of G1 outings, with the intention to go next to the Underwood Stakes (1800m) before the Caulfield Stakes (2000m) and then the Cox Plate (2040m), after which connections will consider their Melbourne Cup options.

"We think - Damien (Oliver) and myself - those gaps are probably what he needs to keep the freshness out of him. A bit of racing at his age now is probably ideal," he said.

Fierce Impact ($4 fav) had just a short-head margin on the line from Russian Camelot ($4.60), with a length-and-a-half to So Si Bon ($31) in third place.

Fierce Impact's trainer Matthew Smith was delighted: "He was super. For a small stable like ours to have a horse like that, it's fantastic. He's the type of horse that always just does enough.

"Russian Camelot got the jump on us a bit but given that he's a horse that only does as much as he has to, it was better that he had something to chase.

"Mark (Zahra) rode him perfectly, judged it perfectly and we couldn't be happier. These races are so hard to win. You can make all the plans, have the horse ready, draw a good barrier but it all still needs to work out.

"Russian Camelot is a serious horse, too. To fend him off was something."

The pair could have something of a rivalry this spring as Fierce Impact is likely to go through the same G1s on his own way to the Cox Plate. 

Story by Andrew Eddy