Marchello Benalla Cup bound after narrow win

Marchello
Marchello continued a strong vein of form with a close win at Corowa on Friday. Picture: Racing.com

TRAINER Geoff Duryea has identified the Benalla Cup as the next race for seven-year-old Marchello after its photo-finish win at Corowa on Friday.

The gelding took a slight advantage coming into the straight, but after getting joined by Trevor Sutherland’s Gentleman Max ($1.50 at Sportsbet.com.au), the in-form runner fought back hard to return $2.90 at WilliamHill.com.au.

Elle Excite featured in the photo-finish, but did not return a dividend in five horse field.

Duryea told HorseBetting.com.au that he never doubted the horse’s winning ability, despite looking beaten at the 100m mark.

“I told the connections before the race he’ll take some getting past,” the trainer said.

“I said ‘getting to him is the easy part, it’s getting past him that is very difficult’. Unless they put a fair bit on him he’s never out of it because he just fights.

“He just keeps putting in and putting in.”

The win for Marchello extended its run to five consecutive races inside the first four – a streak that has delivered two wins.

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Duryea said the team is wary about running the seven-year-old into the ground, but earmarked the October 7 feature in country Victoria as the race he wants to win.

“He’s going to go to the Benalla Cup in a couple of weeks’ time,” he said.

The trainer said the cup could be the horse’s last race in 2017.

“We don’t race him over the summer, he’s too big and the tracks get too hard.

“He has two or three months off over summer so he probably doesn’t have too many runs left in him this prep then he’ll go back to the owner’s place for around three months.”

Despite the strong recent form for the horse the trainer was reluctant to claim Marchello as a winning hope, but believes the horse is more than capable of a strong performance if it gets conditions to suit.

“It’s a super-tough race,” Duryea said.

“If it happened to rain that would really help us, but its 2100m, he likes that and it’s only an hour down the road so we said ‘let’s go for it’.”

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