Sha Tin Next For Sumii's Stars

Melbourne Cup winner Delta Blues and stablemate and runner-up Pop Rock are likely to head to Hong Kong to contest the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase in December.

Just a day after dominating Australia's most famous race and taking home the lion's share of the 5.1 million prize money, connections are already planning to take the pair to Sha Tin for International day on December 10.

David O'Callaghan, the Australian representative of owner Katsumi Yoshida's Shadai Farm establishment, said that the horses would return to Japan before attempting to secure further riches in the mile-and-a-half feature next month.

'We're looking into that at the moment, generally the thought is we go back to Japan for the moment and then we go back to Hong Kong,' he said.

'That's a definite possibility. They're suitable races. It depends on how they are at the time.'

'The 2400m race, the Vase, is where we're looking at.'

O'Callaghan was surprised that the majority of support in the lead-up to Tuesday's race had come for Pop Rock.

He said there had been nothing between the pair in the build-up and that Delta Blues' fine effort when third in the Caulfield Cup should have caused his price to contract.

'I think going into the Caulfield Cup we felt they were very even, even though the price didn't suggest that,' he said.

'Coming into the Melbourne Cup, that probably hadn't changed, they both ran really well (at Caulfield).

'They did well since the race, the trackwork indicated Pop Rock was probably going better but that was only because Delta Blues was very lazy.

'It was interesting with the Japanese trainer, and assistant trainer and trackwork jockey. Their line was always ?both the same'. They weren't far wrong were they?'

And while the ambitious raid proved highly successful, O'Callaghan believes it would be foolish for there to be an influx of Japanese horses for future Melbourne Cups, as he feels the race would not suit many of them.

'I think there's only a certain amount of horses that are suitable for the race. There's not that many who could come here and be competitive,' he explained.

'There's likely to be more coming, but whether that will increase their chances of winning is probably not the case.

But he noted that it was a lot easier for Japanese horses to travel to Australia than European horses.

Of the four European runners to take their chance this time around, fifth-placed Land ?n' Stars fared best.

In the past 14 years that European raiders have been travelling Down Under regularly, only Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle have succeeded in winning the two-mile test.

'It's 16 hours against 26, the same time zone. Certainly I think there's a big advantage on that side of it,' he said.

'The horses when they arrived seemed to do very well. They settled quickly as against the horses that come from Europe, who tend to take a bit longer,' he added.

(C) PA Sport