TWO former British-trained staying handicappers fought out the finish to Wednesday’s A$500,000 Group 3 Geelong Cup. Both were bred by Juddmonte and one of them still carries the colours of the late Khalid Abdullah.

The 12-furlong race was won by Emissary, a five-year-old Kingman gelding who began his racing career with Hugo Palmer.

The horse was rated over 100 when sold by Juddmonte at the 2020 Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale for 350,000gns.

Now trained by Mike Moroney for a local syndicate, Emissary is all but guaranteed a place in the Melbourne Cup field following his one-length success at Geelong under jockey Blake Shinn.

Emissary (17/1) tracked the only British-trained runner - David Simcock’s Rodrigo Diaz - into the straight before surging past his rivals to hit the front in the closing stages and win by a length from Surefire.

The runner-up may be a familiar name to European readers. Trained by Ralph Beckett, Surefire won the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot last year before Juddmonte switched him to trainer Chris Waller and sold some shares in him to local interests.

Surefire started favourite for the Geelong Cup and looked a likely winner in the straight. He finished almost three legnths clear of the pack, headed by Makram (ex-Roger Charlton), the aforementioned Rodrigo Diaz, Grove Berry (ex-Andrew Balding) and Interpretation (ex-Aidan O’Brien).

“He’s a lovely horse and from last spring on we’ve found ourselves a really good stayer,” said Mike Moroney of Emissary.

“He’s come from second-last in a really good field. It’s probably one of the better Geelong Cup fields we’ve seen for a long, long time, and I think for that reason the handicapper will recognise that and that’s what they normally go on. We’ll head on to the Melbourne Cup now, all going well.”

A half-brother to the 2010 Derby and Arc winner Workforce, the win was Emissary’s second from 10 Australian starts.

Stockman booked

The Joseph Pride-trained Stockman franked his ticket to the Melbourne Cup at Randwick on Saturday.

Well inside the cut-off for the Cup, Stockman affirmed the opinion of his trainer with an emphatic win in the A$500,000 St Leger Stakes over 2,600 metres.

Bred by Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan the Tavistock gelding drew well clear of the second placed Lope De Vega gelding Arapaho and the Pierro gelding Sacramento.

“He deserved that today and it was nice to see him put paid to them,” said Pride with an eye to the Cup.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for the owners and for the horse. He’s a very good, honest, genuine stayer. He’d probably needs a bit of a wet track to be effective, but there’s nothing else for him in Sydney.”