OBRIEN: VOW AND DECLARE 'IN GREAT SHAPE'

Heats 9 and 10 at Flemington's Monday morning jumpouts were for the stayers and featured a number of big names.

The first of the two 1200-metre heats saw reigning Melbourne Cup champion Vow And Declare line up in a field of eight including Lindsay Park's Constantinople and the Mike Moroney-trained Aktau.

The Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Renegade led up the heat at a nice rolling tempo and was the ultimate winner in a time of 1:12.34, almost half a second faster than the second heat.

Vow And Declare was partnered by regular jockey Craig Williams, who has returned from a short winter break, and was asked to extend over the final furlong.

"Vow is not a horse that ever trials that flash, but we were particularly happy with him this morning," trainer Danny O'Brien said.

"He had a good, strong gallop, there was a leader in the heat that made them run along at a solid enough clip and Vow followed him though and drew away into second position at the end of the 1200m.

"The horse is in great shape, he's had a lovely winter down at Thirteenth Beach and he's got really good base fitness.

"A strong gallop like this will really bring him on.O'Brien's attention quickly turned from one stable star to another, with Russian Camelot winning Heat 9 and recording a time of 1:12.70.

"We're very happy with him," O'Brien said.

"We were hoping that there would be a bit of tempo in his heat so that he could fall back a bit.

"But they went particularly slowly, and he was right up on the speed the whole trial.

"Damien Oliver slipped him a little bit of rein late and let him stretch his legs and he went through his gears nicely and had a nice gallop on what is a beautiful surface.

"Damien reported back that he was very happy with him, he said he thought he was a bit above himself and very fresh, which is to be expected, he's a colt and he's in great shape physically.

"He was really pleased with the feel he got from him this morning.

"Both Russian and Vow can only really trial on a big track, where there's plenty of room for them to get through their gears, so we'll probably just give them another racecourse gallop and we may not see them at the trials again.

"They'll likely head straight to the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m on September 12).Last year's Melbourne Cup contender Constantinople finished midfield in the same heat as Vow And Declare, and co-trainer Ben Hayes said the performance met the stable's expectations.

"He jumped and raced a bit fresh through the early stages of the jumpout and peaked on his effort the last 200m, which is to be expected.

"He had a big blow and overall Mark Zahra was happy with him.

"We've still got time before his first-up run in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes (1700m on August 29), so we'll continue to stretch his work out and he'll naturally improve.

"We won't see the best of him until he gets out over 2000m.

"After the Heatherlie, he'll be on a Cups path."

By Grace Ramage @Racing.com