Melbourne Cup Day 2020 will be like Christmas Day for Horsham trainer Paul Preusker with New Zealand-bred galloper Surprise Baby (NZ) (Shocking).
The laconic horseman has purposely not raced the bargain basement purchase through the autumn, with a view to once again peaking his brilliant stayer for the Group One two-mile feature.
Preusker will hope to unwrap the son of Shocking on the first Tuesday in November, presenting him with a competitive weight and with foundations years in the making.
With horse and trainer stemming from humble origins, Surprise Baby could just be the feel-good story of spring, exacerbated by trying times which in similar by-gone eras have seen top-class thoroughbreds elevated to symbols of hope for the masses.
With the possibility that Covid-19 might once again turn the Melbourne and Sydney spring carnivals into a largely Australian and New Zealand affair, Surprise Baby shapes as an even better prospect of winning the Cup second-time around, finishing a luckless fifth last year.
“You generally try and keep your horses in the weakest company but it is a great race and you want it as tough as you can get it,” Presuker said. “It’s the one you want to win.”
Preusker mapped a plan to last year’s Melbourne Cup with just two spring runs, finishing fourth in the Gr.2 Feehan Stakes (1600m) before cementing a place in the great race when winning the Gr.3 Bart Cummings (2520m).
“It will be pretty much the same,” he said.
“He has come up beautifully. He had a good solid prep with a few weeks out and then back in now. The horse is in super order.
“It’s a funny thing, you get the Cup over and done with and it’s a sigh of relief. But after a few weeks all the pressure starts again.”
Preusker is one of a number of southern hemisphere trainers who have adopted different methods to preparing stayers without the traditional Australian race-them-fit approach.
“It’s something I just worked on myself,” he said. “We are seeing training change all the time.
“Good horses are valuable and we just try and put the homework in and produce them when they’re ready.
“It’s all foundation and it is mentally having them ready to go to war that is the key.”
Preusker believes the approach incorporates pieces of what visiting European trainers do, balanced with local conditions.
“It is heavily European influenced and they seem to be getting us, so we sort of have to meet them somewhere in the middle I reckon,” he said.
Surprise Baby was purchased as an unraced three-year-old for just $5500 from online auction platform gavelhouse.com, with owner John Fiteni sourcing the stubborn youngster sight-unseen from Rich Hill Stud, breeders of memorable 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance.
The five-year-old gelding has now won close to A$1 million in 11 starts for Preusker.
The man with a penchant for stayers will saddle three runners at Flemington on Saturday, with Rupture looking a strong hope in the Les Carlyon (1700m).
Kiwi import Vividredsky, a modest winner for Riccarton trainer Neill Ridley, has won three on end for Preusker but will take a seismic leap in grade in the William Newton VC Handicap (2600m).
The son of Alamosa has duly been installed a $150 chance and tackles the likes of last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare, but Preusker does view him as a stayer with some promise.
“It’s a real throw at the stumps,” he said. “I feel a little bit like Stevie Wonder bowling to Bradman but you can’t knock a horse that is wanting to win and he is probably a Jericho type of horse.
“We will give him a look at this and then put him away.”
