O'BRIEN AIMS TO REWRITE CUP HISTORY
Flemington trainer Danny O'Brien is in the early stages of a bid to achieve a racing feat that hasn't been done in 128 years in November's Melbourne Cup.
O'Brien won the 2019 Melbourne Cup with Vow And Declare and has started a long-range campaign to notch another win in the great race with the gelding's half-sister Litzdeel.
The pair is out of Testa Rossa mare Geblitzt, which also produced the stakes-winning stayer Lycurgus.
Gaulus and The Grafter were the last siblings to win the Melbourne Cup when they saluted in 1897 and 1898 respectively and were the third set of brothers to claim editions of the Flemington event.
Toryboy and The Barb did it in 1866 and 1867 while Nimblefoot and The Quack claimed the 1871 and 1873 Melbourne Cup.
Litzdeel was a Group 3 winner over 2500m in Adelaide last autumn but showed the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup was within her capabilities when a dominant winner over 2800m on Cup Day last year.
"She's a mare that was always going to keep furnishing. She's only four but she's definitely strengthened up," O'Brien said.
"She was only a little light thing when she won in South Australia in May.
She only had the four runs in the spring but her win on Melbourne Cup Day was really impressive.
"She got a great ride but she outclassed them. She looked like she was better than that grade."
O'Brien said Litzdeel's lack of size had not stopped her developing into an emerging stayer that could make the required improvement to be prominent on the first Tuesday in November this year.
He said he had geared the daughter of Dundeel's autumn campaign around a crack at a Melbourne Cup golden ticket at the end of Melbourne's Festival of Racing.
"She's come back a little bit stronger and more mature," O'Brien said.
"Her aim is the Roy Higgins on Australian Cup Day, the last Saturday in March.
"She loves Flemington. She just travels really well on that big sweeping corner there.
"She's a little thing but she's got a massive stride. She doesn't even get around Caulfield and smaller tracks."
O'Brien said securing a Melbourne Cup ballot exemption in the Roy Higgins would only be part of the equation with Litzdeel.
He said Litzdeel would still need a little more help from nature to make the required improvement to Group 1 level in the Melbourne Cup, meaning he had not thought about the mare's program beyond March.
"There's always races to get to the Melbourne Cup," O'Brien said.
"It's still a huge jump and she's still got to keep improving before you can even think about it."
Story by Brad Waters for Herald Sun and Racenet
Pic by Racing Photos