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Melbourne target for Caulfield Cup hero Best Solution

Pat Cosgrave with Best Solution, winners of the Caulfield Cup
Pat Cosgrave with Best Solution, winners of the Caulfield Cup

Saeed bin Suroor has been in the shadow of fellow Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby throughout much of the past two seasons, but flag-bearer Best Solution gave him a fillip when gaining a third consecutive Group 1 victory when taking the Stella Artois Caulfield Cup.

The four-year-old son of Kodiac will now head to the Lexus Melbourne Cup after just having enough to fend off Homesman in a tight photo finish. He was immediately cut to 12/1 by GentingBet for the 2m Melbourne Cup, dubbed the ‘race that stops a nation’, on November 6.

Sent off an 11/1 chance, Best Solution dug deep under Pat Cosgrave having missed the break from his wide draw, but his rider stayed patient and with the lack of pace in the race, he made a move to kick clear some way out and rounded the home turn in front.

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The colt, who had previously secured two top-level successes in Germany following a Group 2 win at Newmarket in July, held off all comers to earn a short-head verdict in the mile-and-a-half contest.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained The Cliffsofmoher (known in Britain as Cliffs Of Moher) was third, with the Andrew Balding-trained Duretto fourth.

Bin Suroor, who teamed up with Cosgrave to win the Ladbrokes Stakes with Benbatl last weekend, said: “It was Sheikh Mohammed’s decision to send him to Australia after he won two Group Ones in Germany and it is a brilliant result for him.

“The horse is doing good and the Melbourne Cup is a big race, it’s another dream for us, but we will try.”

Cosgrave said: “It’s been a wonderful week. It wasn’t an ideal start and he was slow away, but I ended up getting a good position halfway down the back straight.

“It was quick early for the first couple of furlongs, then they dawdled down to the 3f pole and that’s why I kicked early – my horse is a good stayer.

“He’s been a wonderful horse for me over the last 18 months and hopefully we can go on to Melbourne now.”

He added: “It was a good day today, he toughed it out well. There’s another half-mile to go (in the Melbourne Cup), but we’ll enjoy today first, come back to Melbourne and see how we go.”

However, the stewards deemed Cosgrave in contravention of the rules and suspended him for 11 meetings for careless riding.

Cosgrave did not dispute the charge and opted to serve the ban immediately.

He will therefore not be available for next weekend’s Cox Plate but will be back in time for the two-mile Melbourne Cup at Flemington.