KEY POINTS:
Faith was the operative word after the Don Ha Real Estate City of Auckland Cup at Ellerslie yesterday.
Faith from punters that Six O'Clock News, the horse with the biggest reputation in the country, would finally deliver. And faith from the horse's 25-strong syndicate - around a third
of whom had never raced a horse before - that ice-cool big-race specialist Noel Harris was still the man for the job.
Harris has ridden a stack of more prestigious winners before but few will go down as more satisfying in his headline-grabbing career than yesterday's $200,000 group two prize.
He freely admits that his partnership with the Zabeel 4-year-old when beaten favourite in the Waikato Cup last month wasn't one of his best rides.
With the pace on from the jump courtesy of lightweight Pentour and Natasha Collett, Harris left nothing to chance yesterday, keeping Six O'Clock News well off the fence and making his run wide in the straight.
"If they can't do that, there's no point in taking them to Australia," said Harris. "At Te Rapa I tried to ride him too good. I don't mind them getting beaten on their merits but when a horse has no luck ...
"If you run that race again you'd get a completely different result."
Harris wouldn't be drawn into comparisons with the last Paddy Busuttin-trained staying star, Castletown, who he partnered to an Auckland Cup success, three Wellington Cup victories and a Sydney crown in the early 1990s.
The latter was a staying freak who won at 2 and didn't stop until 7, while the unanimous opinion yesterday in the Six O'Clock News camp is that the heir to Castletown's throne is still at least six months from his best.
"He's second at the moment; he's going to take a bit to get past the old bloke," said Busuttin, who trains in partnership with his son Trent.
"But he'll share a paddock with Castletown when we freshen him up for 10 days for the Auckland Cup."
Busuttin says he's likely to bypass the Wellington Cup - now 2400m - on January 24 and instead target the $1 million Auckland Cup on March 4 at Ellerslie.
Safely through that test, he could back-up in Sydney over the same trip, and long term, the Melbourne Cup in November.
"Trentham is his track - the big and roomy surface would really suit him - but I think he's a two-miler now so we'll wait for the Auckland Cup in all probability.
"Whatever he does now, he's going to be twice as good next year. The horse's reputation has probably been bigger than he deserves, so it's just good to see him come through today."
Few were celebrating louder than Six O'Clock News' boisterous owners and syndicate manager, Cambridge bloodstock agent Stuart Hale.
Hale fell in love with the Zabeel gelding on first sight, but always thought he'd have to wait a lot longer for such a healthy return on the $110,000 yearling purchase.
"He was the most beautiful action horse I'd seen when I was watching all the DVDs of the yearlings," said Hale.
"But when Paddy and I had a look at him he was a big lean horse. He had 5-year-old written all over him."