Don’t count out the three nine-year-olds in the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup at Ellerslie on Sunday.
Only one nine-year-old has won the race in the last 120 years but it wasn’t long ago.
El Soldado’s shock win in 2016, after leading for much of the way, will provide hope for the connections of Sound, Hurry Cane and Roger That this weekend.
Sound and Hurry Cane are already rated among the leading contenders, which was certainly not the case with El Soldado in 2016.
Roger That is one of three nine-year-olds in this year's Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup. Photo: Race Images.
El Soldado was the outsider of the 16-horse field, at $125. He was having his fourth start in the race and had been placed in just one of his nine previous starts that season. Darryl Bradley was riding the horse for the first time and El Soldado’s owner-trainer, Phillip Devcich, had had just four previous wins as a trainer.
However, El Soldado ended his career with a sound record as a stayer. He ran second to Sangster at his first attempt at the Auckland Cup and finished fifth two years later. He also won a Te Aroha Cup and returned to Ellerslie as a 10-year-old, to win the Group II Avondale Cup.
The Avondale Cup victory brought him into contention for another Auckland Cup tilt, but he knocked a leg in the paddock and was unable to make a fifth appearance.
His career earnings were $600,000, with half of that coming from his Auckland Cup triumph.
Though he won eight races and had 24 placings, El Soldado was rarely able to gain the confidence of punters. He paid $17 for a place when runner-up in the Auckland Cup – he was paying $88 to win – and paid $69 on the tote and was at $101 at fixed-odds when he won the Avondale Cup.
Now a 15-year-old, El Soldado is spending his retirement years at Devcich’s Waikato property. “No one is riding him but he’s a happy horse and still thinks he’s a five-year-old,” Devcich said. “One thing he taught us is that age has no limits.”
Devcich, who is a fencing contractor, has not had a runner since El Soldado, though not entirely by choice, as a broken pelvis and later a broken shoulder have kept him on the sidelines for lengthy periods.
However, he hopes to return with El Soldado’s close relation, the Burgundy gelding El Zoro. Pepita, the dam of El Zoro, is a winning sister to El Soldado.
“He [El Zoro] is a five-year-old now but that won’t do him any harm,” Devcich said. “It’s a late maturing family and he’s a lovely horse. He should be racing this year.”
El Soldado is likely to get an extra pat or two on Sunday. “Winning an Auckland Cup was something I had dreamt about since I was an eight-year-old. Looking back on it, you realise it’s quite a hard race to win.
“So, to breed and train a winner – I think I can take a little bit of credit for doing that.”
To read more about El Soldado and our other much-loved retired Thoroughbreds, visit loveracing.nz/walloffame.