Racing: Kiwi-bred horse Crosshaven takes superb Caulfield Guineas Prelude win

Crosshaven ridden by Daniel Stackhouse wins the Caulfield Guineas Prelude on Saturday. Photo / Reg Ryan, Racing Photos

If Kiwi-bred galloper Crosshaven wasn't such a bad boy he could be worth millions of dollars.

But his Auckland-based breeder and co-owner Daniel Nakhle takes solace in knowing the attitude that cost the 3-year-old his future breeding career might also be what makes him so good.

Crosshaven made it four wins from five starts winning the Caulfield Guineas Prelude on Saturday, leaving Nakhle dumbfounded.

"You hope to get horses as good as this but you don't really think you are going to end up with a horse good enough to be a real chance in the Caulfield Guineas," says Nakhle.

The Caulfield Guineas is one of the jewels in the crown of the Australian thoroughbred industry, often referred to as a stallion-making race as colts who win it are all but guaranteed a commercial start to their stallion career.

But therein lies the problem. Crosshaven is a gelding, which means he is still worth a lot as a racehorse but a fraction of what he could be worth with those bags of gold between his legs.

"In part that is how I still ended up owning part of him," explains Nakhle.

"We loved him as a yearling but on sales day at Karaka he paraded poorly, he was all arrogant and mucking around and colty.

"So we actually ended up passing him in at $80,000 and then sold 75 per cent of him after the sale to clients of Mark Pilkington and David Hayes [champion trainer], who we knew because I have Spanish Whisper racing at what was the Hayes and Tom Dabernig stable.

"Because he was so colty he needed to be gelded but that strong-mindedness is still there in his races, both in the way he goes and the way he fights. In all of his wins, his last 100m has been his strongest."

A New Zealand-bred gelding winning the Caulfield Guineas in two weeks would be a timely boost for the sales industry here of which Nakhle is a huge supporter, having also bred impressive Ellerslie winner Dragon Run earlier on Saturday.

"We are so lucky here to have the great conditions and New Zealand grass to raise our horses on," says Nakhle.

While there won't be any stallion deals to be done should Crosshaven win the Guineas or any other major races, Nakhle still breeds from his dam Irish Colleen and has doubled down on the family bloodlines.

"She has been a fantastic mare for us, she was a good race mare who won the Concorde and she has left horses like Killarney and Neeson as well as a smart filly named Gracehill who won two races before bleeding.

"She might have been as good as any of the others from the mare so we bought her back because the mare hadn't had any other foals. So now we have her to breed from, too."

Nakhle knows he can't be in Melbourne over the next fortnight to see Spanish Whisper tackle a Group 3 next week and then Crosshaven taking on the Sydney superstars when they travel south to bolster the Guineas field.

"I'd love to be there, it would be magic. But to see your colours winning big races in Melbourne, that is still very special."