Melbourne Cup Nom for Prince's Brother

Trainer Andrea Leek is dreaming big when it comes to Wednesday's Sandown winner Heir to the Throne (Pentire-Royal Successor, by Mr Prospector), reports racingnews.co.nz. "We've put in a sneaky little nom for the Melbourne Cup," Leek said about the full-brother to 2015 Melbourne Cup winner Prince of Penzance. "You never know, you've got to have dreams, that's what our dream is but he's already given us excitement by coming here and winning today. There's a benchmark 78 at The Valley over 2500m coming up in a week-and-a-half and that's our plan to go there." Looking further afield, Leek revealed, "Then ideally, if he could win that, we would love to go to Flemington. It's a big track and we could give him a chance to show what he's got. The further he goes the better. The track today has dried out a fair bit and might have taken a bit of his brilliance from him, but he's flying." Heir to the Throne's win over 2400m on Wednesday was his seventh win in 39 starts. Bought as a tried horse by Leek's husband in an Inglis online sale for $35,000, Heir to the Throne was originally a $200,000 New Zealand Bloodstock yearling graduate.

Prince of Penzance (pic: Mark Gatt)