Tarzino Trophy Countdown: Number 1 - Xcellent 2005

The first Group 1 of the New Zealand racing season always brings a great deal of excitement. As we get closer to the running of the 2020 Tarzino Trophy, we are taking a look at the top 10 performances in the race since the turn of the century.

First run in 1985 when named the Challenge Stakes, all through the years this race has attracted an extremely strong field. Given it is early in the season at Weight-For-Age conditions over 1400m, horses of the highest echelon use this race as a springboard to campaigns both in New Zealand and Internationally.

Previously named the Mudgway Stakes, the Mudgway Challenge Stakes and the Makfi Challenge Stakes, the race was renamed the Tarzino Trophy in 2017. Tarzino - a former Victoria Derby and Rosehill Guineas winner - now stands at Westbury Stud.

If you’re reading this after having watched the video above, no matter how many times you’ve seen it before, there’s a high chance that you’ve just spent an extended period of time with your jaw open staring at the screen.

If you haven’t seen it, do that first and we’ll see you in a few minutes once you’ve recovered.

It is one of the most remarkable performances from a racehorse you’ll find hidden anywhere in the archives. And the commentator wasn’t bad either!

In a recurring theme of our Top 10 Countdown, this was another example of value-for-money personified. By the late sire Pentire out of three time winning Centro mare Excelo, Paul Moroney picked Xcellent up at Karaka in 2003 for $45,000.

Owned and raced by G W Breingan, M J Gatt, P A Heath, D A Nicholson, Penshurst Park Ltd & Wellington Racing Syndicate, the horse was to be trained by Mike Moroney.

It all began in a humble fashion when as a 3yo gelding he debuted a winner. It was the first time the public were treated to that withering finishing burst, as he charged home wide to claim the running of The Fatty & The Fern 1600 at Te Rapa.

It was humble no more as just two starts later, his third appearance on a race track, he achieved the remarkable feat of winning the 2004 New Zealand Derby.

He was then sent for a spell, eating his grass as a Derby winner, before being brought back three months later for a turn at the older brigade. On paper it looked like a tall order, but on the track it was a breeze as he claimed his second Group 1 win in the New Zealand Stakes at Ellerslie over 2000m.

After a head scratching below-par effort in the AJC Derby three weeks later, he was sent to the paddock for winter, the recently crowned New Zealand Horse Of The Year would aim up at The Mudgway at Hastings for his return.

The Mudgway Fair Tax For Racing Stakes of 2005 attracted a classy lineup.

Included were the classy Miss Potential who had been the winner in 2003, the runner up in 2004 and the winner of a Group 1 in Melbourne during her previous preparation.

The previous years Kelt winner Balmuse , Thorndon Mile winner Maroofity and other group one winners such as The Jewel, Zvezda and Clean Sweep took their place.

But really the above is all mathematical, as a sensational horse who did everything to try and lose himself the race in the early stages, produced arguably the best performance to be seen on a New Zealand racetrack.

We’ve normally laid out how the race was run in our features over the last few weeks, but a picture paints a thousand words, so just scroll up and watch it again!

Tony Lee, equally brilliant in commentary, said it all: “Xcellent, he is a MEGASTAR!!!”

In a piece for Love Racing written by Aidan Rodley, jockey Michael Coleman marvelled at the performance:

"That Mudgway, he bungled the start badly, was last early and only had a couple of horses behind him on the turn. He must have run incredible sectionals to win”.

Confirmed now as a freak, the world was his oyster.

Aimed at the Melbourne Spring, he’d have a quick freshen up before winning the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Kelt Capital Stakes (Group 1, 2040m).

It was over the same distance in the Cox Plate where he’d have his first crack in Melbourne, running only 9th on a track not to his style of racing.

His next performance when you look at it for what it was, was on par with his effort in the Mudgway. Not specifically aimed for the race and with an unconventional preparation into it, he was able to run an enormous third to Makybe Diva in the 2005 Melbourne Cup.

At the peak of his powers and receiving an invite to race in Dubai, he was halted by injury and would spend 18 months off the track.

Returning in June of 2007 in the Stradbroke Handicap (Group 1, 1400m), he was unplaced and would return home to spell for the winter.

He won fresh up at Ellerslie in the Sir James Fletcher Stakes (Group 3, 1600m) to beat Sir Slick and Wahid.

He’d suffer his only defeat on New Zealand shores next in the Group 1 Zabeel Classic (2000m), charging home for second beaten only by Sir Slick in the pomp of that great gallopers career.

It was a bitter-sweet day at Trentham on the 19th of January 2008.

If you had the pleasure of being on course to witness Xcellent take out the Trentham Stakes (Group 3, 2400m) that sunny day, you’d know the admiration that existed for this thoroughbred. Race goers young and old stood and applauded as he past the winning post in first position, appreciative of the things he’d already achieved and looking forward to the exciting future that lay ahead.

But as jockey Michael Coleman (who’d partnered the horse in all but his first start) dismounted shortly after the line, the admiration turned to worry as it was apparent all was not right.

He had suffered a suspensory ligament injury 200m from home and had to be retired.

Trainer Michael Moroney told Aidan Rodley:

"It was a bloody sad day. You could see the last furlong something had gone wrong, but he still stuck his head out and won the race”.

"For a horse that had such a short time racing, he was so popular with the crowds.”

He’s been well looked after since his departure from the track. Spending his days at Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge as a key member of the Horse Magic Show, he returned to Ballymore stables where he remains in fine fettle to this day.

With a career spanning only 13 starts, for eight wins (four at Group 1 level) and over $1.6million in prize money, Xcellent was brilliant.

He’d already achieved what the vast majority of horses will ever get near, and it is a testament to his incredible talent that perhaps the best was yet to come if his career wasn’t cut short.

Watch the video one more time and salute our Number One performer in the Tarzino Trophy since the turn of the millennium….Xcellent!