Racing: Long Jack seals $2.1m Derby start with Geelong win

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What Long Jack didn't do before the race paved the way for him to win the $149,000 Geelong Classic last night.

And that has sealed his shot at the $2.1 million VRC Derby at Flemington in nine days, even though he will need a new rider.

The Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained 3-year-old overcame a wide draw courtesy of a perfect Damian Lane ride in the 2200m classic, settling midfield one off before punching through a gap to win going away.

It was a beautiful steer from the Caulfield Cup-winning jockey but he will watch the Derby from home as he serves a 10-day suspension which starts after the Cox Plate meeting this Saturday.

So Long Jack is going to need a new rider and there will be no shortage of jockeys' agents on the phone to his Cambridge trainers in coming days.

Long Jack arrived in Australia with a large reputation but after an early win let himself, and punters, down last start when he got very colty before the race and sapped his energy.

The addition of a bright red ear hood yesterday, which Long Jack wore all day at the races before having it removed during the parade, saw him far better behaved and he paraded a different horse.

"He was a different horse today and far more relaxed, so he could conserve his energy beforehand," said Lane.

Baker, who was on track for the win, said stable travelling foreperson Aleisha Legg was a huge contributor to yesterday's win, working tirelessly on Long Jack in the last two weeks.

He wasn't the only Kiwi success at Geelong yesterday with Michael Walker riding Prince Of Arran to a brave win in the Geelong Cup, which might be enough to get him a start in the Melbourne Cup in 12 days.

• Champion English rider Ryan Moore believes Japanese mare Lys Gracieux might have an edge on her rivals in Saturday's Cox Plate, but he is far from discounting the possibility that another visiting mare could provide an upset of sorts.

Moore will ride Coolmore's classy Galileo mare Magic Wand in the A$5 million race and after galloping the horse at the Spendthrift Australia Park at Werribee yesterday morning, he said he had claims of adding a second Cox Plate to the one he snatched with Adelaide in 2014.

"She's never won a Group 1 and this is arguably the biggest weight-for-age race in Australia so she's got to improve a little bit to be winning," Moore told Racing.com.

Meanwhile, the spring carnival hopes of another UK raider are over.

Following another frustratingly luckless run in the Caulfield Cup, Red Verdon will not contest this year's Melbourne Cup through injury.

"The fracture is minute but everyone would be devastated if he did himself any damage by running," Ed Dunlop's travelling foreman Robin Trevor-Jones said.