Xtravagant Chases Classic

www.couriermail.com.au reports:

AS Xtravagant bids to become the first New Zealand-trained horse to win the Australian Guineas on Saturday, he also has to live up to the tag of being the highest rated Kiwi to arrive here since Bonecrusher.

Xtravagant arrived in Melbourne on Thursday and despite it being 24 hours later than initially planned punters have jumped on the bandwagon and he was into $3.50 with UBET on Thursday night.

The son of Pentire has gained a cult following back home in New Zealand and his owners Te Akau Racing complete each public update on the colt with the hashtag #sexonhooves.

There's been no shortage of sex appeal in what Xtravagant has done so far. Three of his five wins have come in margins of 7.5 lengths or greater, including a last-start Group 1 romp against older horses.

Ominously, trainer Stephen Autridge said that race was used “just to top him off beautifully” for the Guineas.

“We'd gone a little bit easy on him going into that race,” Autridge told RSN on Thursday.

Xtravagant has brilliant speed out of the gates and then drops his head low on the chest in a similar style to that of 1994 Australian Guineas winner Mahogany.

But it's the memory of some beaten Guineas fancies that are haunting fans of Xtravagant.

While the Kiwis have a proud, even dominant record in most Australian classics, the Flemington feature has so far proven out of reach.

O'Reilly and Zonda ran second in 1997 and 1998 and then multiple Group 1 winner Darci Brahma (also trained by Te Akau and selected and purchased by David Ellis) was outgunned by Apache Cat in 2006. The filly We Can Say It Now started the $4.80 favourite in 2011 but went amiss, finishing 14th and never raced again.

But according to Timeform, none of those came with the level of performance or scope to improve further as Xtravagant, whose 125+ puts him behind only Exosphere (127) in Australasia this season.

In fact, only the great Bonecrusher (126) has arrived in Australia with a higher 3YO Timeform rating across the ditch in modern times.

“That number is pretty high for a three-year-old. Normally they don't get to that figure until they win a race like the Doncaster,” Timeform Australia's Gary Crispe said.

“If he can run anywhere near the 125, he has a good margin on his rivals (Saturday), with Mahuta's last start 115 the benchmark in Melbourne so far this autumn.”

HIGH RATED KIWIS

Timeform ratings of NZ 3YOs before they came to Australia

126 Bonecrusher

125+ XTRAVAGANT  #sexonhooves

125 Zonda

122 Darci Brahma

121 Veandercross

120 Mongolian Khan

118 Volkstok'n'barrell

117 Jimmy Choux

117 We Can Say It Now

116 Ocean Park

116 Sacred Falls