Racing: Stayer needs hard track

SYDNEY - Classy stayer Vanquished was one of 17 entries for Saturday's 2400m Stayers Cup at Rosehill which will serve as his leadup to the group two Brisbane Cup.

The gelding's Sydney Cup bid was thwarted by wet tracks but trainer Bede Murray said he was fit and well and on target for the Brisbane Cup (2400m) on June 11.

"I have kept him ticking over and he'll run in the Stayers Cup at Rosehill and then go to Brisbane for the cup," Murray said.

"I just hope the tracks stay firm. He is a horse who really needs a hard track.

Vanquished finished 11th in the Sydney Cup, which was run on a dead track and he failed to show his customary dash at the finish.

"He has come through that really well and I didn't see anything in the Chairman's Handicap on Saturday that worried me. I think he is up to those horses as long as the track stays as it is in Brisbane."

The Chairman's Hcp (2020m) at Doomben last Saturday was won by New Zealander Mandela, who beat an unlucky Vanquished in last year's Geelong Cup.

Vanquished first came to notice in the autumn of 2004 when he graduated from a midweek win at Canterbury to claim the Wagga Cup and Prime Minister's Cup at the Gold Coast.

He spent some time on the sidelines with a niggling leg injury but came back with a vengeance last spring with his best effort in a big race yet when third to Tawqeet in the Metropolitan Handicap.

Murray's Melbourne Cup dream fell apart when Vanquished failed to make the field.

-AAP