Big Plans for the X Factor

The Informant reports:

Budding champion three-year-old colt Xtravagant may travel to England to take on the world's best should he continue his impressive winning form in the A$750,000 Australian Guineas at Flemington on March 5.

Xtravagant is shaping-up as one of the best horses we have seen in years. His two Group One-winning performances have been so dominant they are drawing comparisons to the most famous names in thoroughbred history.

“If he went to Royal Ascot there would be only six and seven-furlong races for him but because of the nature of the track those distances are more like 1400 and 1600 metres on our courses,” said co-trainer Stephen Autridge.

“The thinking is he may go to Royal Ascot if he won the Australian Guineas, and if that decision was confirmed then he wouldn't race in Sydney.

“The options are the Rosehill Guineas and he's also nominated for the Doncaster Handicap. He won't be going to the Derby and if we wanted to stay in Melbourne there's the Australian Cup a week after the Guineas.”

Xtravagant's special quality is his ability to ‘bolt' from the barrier, dominate and then explode away from his opposition, putting lengths on his rivals in a matter of strides. This has been the pattern of his two Group One wins but it's not the modus operandiNew Zealand racegoers are accustomed to seeing from their best horses.

Add to that his high cruising speed and you have the attributes that are more associated with the top Australian horses. Kingston Town is a name that comes immediately to mind. He could sprint three times in a race and be positioned anywhere his jockey desired, but we shouldn't make comparisons with such an icon - at least not yet!

Looking at Xtravagant's pedigree, his style of racing is not stereotypical of his close relatives. But further back in the pedigree there may exist a clue.

Autridge pricks his ears at the suggestion that Xtravagant is less an example of his sire Pentire and damsire Zabeel and more a throwback to the explosive speed of the champion Vain, who appears in the fifth remove of his pedigree:

“Yes, we've joked about how we could easily set this horse for a Telegraph. And then if you asked ‘what's his pet distance' my thoughts would be 1400 to 1600 metres - I don't think there's any doubt. And if we want him to race over ground he could go 2000 metres as a four-year-old and I think he would be the ideal Cox Plate horse."

Vain was Australia's champion two and three-year-old in the late 1960s. Like Xtravagant, he had lightning speed from the barrier, a high cruising speed and could produce a second sprint when called for. He won the Golden Slipper by four lengths, the Champagne Stakes (1600m) by 10 lengths, the Linlithgow Stakes (1400m) by six lengths, the Cravan A Stakes (1200m) by 12 lengths and the George Adams Handicap (1600m). He retired to stud at four having won 10 of his 12 starts.

Xtravagant has won five of his eight starts to date, his three failures coming on the three of the eight tracks most affected by rain. He has been a relatively slow learner but each time he has gone to the races he has behaved more tractably.

“He's been like a big kid but Saturday was the best he's ever behaved at the races so we think we're going the right way,” Autridge said. “He's a very easy horse to handle but when he walks out of his stall and suddenly sees 20 other horses he gets excited. He's relaxing more and more each time he goes to the races and then during the race.”

Since last Saturday's eight-length NRM Sprint win at Te Rapa it's been well documented how connections devised a plan to lead and stick to the rail while rivals were searching for better ground in the centre of the track.

Knowing his preparation has always been aimed towards the Australian Guineas, the suggestion to Autridge that Xtravagant had still not reached peak fitness drew a quick and decisive response: “No, no he hasn't!”

That's the scary thing for his rivals in the Guineas but ‘The X' still has to handle the travel to Flemington and then have the weather gods play their part with the presentation of a firm surface.

“He will do all his fast work at home,” said Autridge, “have his final gallop on the Tuesday morning and fly to Melbourne on Wednesday night before Saturday 5^th March.”