Racing: Rivals disappear as Elsu explodes

This wasn't what you could call a win.

A win after all is what happens every day in racing, horses of all shapes and sizes win races and a lot of the time hardly anybody notices.

But everybody noticed what Elsu did at Moonee Valley on Saturday night, so we couldn't just say it was a win.

I suppose you could call it a domination. Maybe even a thrashing.

Those terms would both be right after all. Elsu did give most of the best pacers in the Southern Hemisphere a 20m headstart, sat three wide outside them and then tore their hearts out at the top of the home straight when he changed gears to own Australia's greatest race untouched.

But even half that would have been good enough to warrant a decent old thrashing or your everyday, run-of-the- mill domination.

So that just won't quite do.

No, after spending two hours walking around Moonee Valley after the most unbelievable harness racing win in a decade, only one word can truly describe what happened in the Hunter Cup.

Explosion. There was an explosion.

Explosions cause damage. Explosions have casualties. Explosion are what make stars. Explosions have fallout.

Yes, this was most definitely an explosion.

The explosion happened at around 9.47pm.

Until then it had been a relatively normal Hunter Cup. Great horses, running about as fast as they can, and at the 400m mark there was that building feeling of anticipation.

Could Young Rufus hold on in front? What about The Warp Drive after having that perfect trail? Or Flashing Red, or Howard Bromac?

Then at the top of the straight Elsu exploded and everything changed.

The explosion was self-contained in his muscular black body, which turned into a mass of whirling legs flicking crusher dust in his rivals' collective faces.

It enabled Elsu to do what couldn't be done, what the best pacers of the last decade found impossible.

They all found it impossible to win the Hunter Cup off a handicap even if they had good runs. Elsu had the worst possible run and jogged it.

When you consider his handicap and how much extra ground he covered when three wide, Elsu was the best horse in the race by a conservative 40m.

That doesn't happen. Well, not until Saturday night at least.

So the explosion propelled Elsu from being a champion to being the champion. From now on all open class discussions in this era will start with the words, "apart from Elsu".

He is the exception to the rules.

Like any good explosion there was, and will continue to be, fallout.

Straight after the race rival trainers were wondering whether to come to Alexandra Park for next month's Interdominions.

Lance Justice, who trains Australia's best pacer, Sokyola, summed it up.

"I am going to go home, have a good think about what I just saw there and then make up my mind about whether to come to New Zealand," said Justice.

"I'll probably still come but if Elsu races like that I don't know why."

Other trainers said they wouldn't bother. Maybe they were just shell-shocked. Explosions can do that apparently.

Bookies were also in damage control, rushing to bring Elsu in $2.50 to win the series, which starts on March 4.

And already the breeding industry is feeling the aftershocks.

Among the huge crowd of fans who surrounded Elsu's box even an hour after the race some were asking how they could get a mare served by the explosive one.

People already want baby Elsus. Baby explosions.

Trainer Geoff Small and driver David Butcher were stunned by what happened, the carnage they caused.

Butcher waved his whip as he hit the line, partly in shock but mainly to exorcise the demons of Elsu's Miracle Mile defeat in November, a run that had some questioning his greatness.

They question no more.

"I wanted to win for that, to remind people how good he is," said Butcher.

"But as for the race, it hasn't really sunk in. Who ran second?" he asked.

For Small the win will open what few doors in harness racing remained closed to him.

He is now harness racing's most feared trainer with its most feared horse.

Ahead lie the Interdominions and the chance for Elsu to become the richest pacer ever in the Southern Hemisphere.

It would be easy to think about that, or how he almost doubled his stallion worth on Saturday night, or trying to win the New Zealand Cup that Small craves so badly.

Or taking on the world's best in the United States, or 1:50 mile time trials, or Small knowing he must buy Elsu's yearling half-brother at the Karaka sales next Monday.

You could think about all those things, but don't bother, leave them for another day.

Because this was a win so perfect it should be savoured for just a bit longer before reality seeps in.

Rarely has an explosion been so beautiful.

The Hunter

* Elsu scores an unbelievable win in the A$450,000 Hunter Cup.

* The South Auckland champion had the worst run in the race yet won untouched.

* He is now a $2.50 favourite for the Interdominions, which start on March 4.

* The trainers of several leading Australian pacers are considering not coming to the series because they cannot beat Elsu.