Racing: Cheval De Troy leaves rivals trembling

Scary is the only way to describe Cheval De Troy's ability.

Bad luck, and plenty of it, is the only thing that can stand between the colt and victory in the $500,000 Mercedes Derby on Boxing Day.

If Cheval De Troy's five and a half length win in yesterday's $60,000 Bonecrusher Stakes was not enough on its own to convince you of that, then have a chat with co-trainer Colin Jillings.

"No 3-year-old has ever worked up as well as this horse - he had to win today," said Jillings.

Which would mean considerably less if Jillings had not already trained the Derby winner five times with the likes of Uncle Remus.

Rider Opie Bosson could not stop laughing after the race because he thinks he is on the Derby winner.

It was not as though Cheval De Troy had the run of the race - he was caught wide early from an outside gate and sat three wide until the 1100m when he slotted in one off the rail.

Bosson cut him loose from the 600m, going four and five wide around the leaders on the home bend.

The question then was whether Cheval De Troy could keep going after having done so much work.

In retrospect, that is laughable. He sprinted so quickly Bosson admitted later he was shouting to him: "Whoa, whoa, not so fast."

It was the most graphic destruction of a good field in memory.

Mandela, dashing winner of the Avondale Guineas 70 minutes earlier, will go down in history as holding favouritism for the Derby for the shortest period of time.

Jillings and senior syndicate owner Peter Walker picked Cheval De Troy out from the draft of Cambridge Stud before last year's Karaka yearling sales.

"I want to publicly thank Peter Walker because $400,000 is a lot of money to pay to race a horse in New Zealand," Jillings said.

"Without people like that our stable would not have him and racing here would be poorer."

The stable has prepared Cheval De Troy with only one race in mind.

"With each race we've stepped him up and he's come with us," said training partner Richard Yuill.

The improvement between winning the Mercedes Derby Prelude last start to yesterday's win is stunning. It makes sense to believe Jillings and Yuill have held back the last bit of improvement.

Imagine the result yesterday if Cheval De Troy had drawn barrier No 4 and trailed the leaders. Then add the possible bit of improvement and you need a lot of imagination to come up with a horse to beat him on Boxing Day.

It won't stop the others trying and Mark Du Plessis was very happy with the performance of South Islander Fiscal Madness, who ran on nicely into fourth.

Co-trainer Dawn Williams had been concerned that Fiscal Madness would settle at his first start beyond 1600m.

"It was a nice effort," said Du Plessis.

King Johny, who had raced only twice, looked the big improver in finishing second. He got a long way back and made a lot of ground in the closing stages.

Cheshire and Uhuru went even races, but there was only one horse in it.

The Derby could be the same.