Sir Delius is the Melbourne Cup favourite, but should he be?

In the Group 1 SEN Underwood Stakes Sir Delius pulled off a remarkable comeback victory to win the $1 million race.

The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained bay flew home at the 400m mark after finding himself four lengths behind Buckaroo.

The son of Frankel's rapid sprint home narrowly denied Buckaroo consecutive Underwood victories, beating the seven-year-old by 0.46 lengths.

Following his first ever Group 1 victory, Sir Delius powered into Melbourne Cup favouritism at $5.50 (on Sportsbet), leaving both Gerard Whateley and David Gately in awe.

“He couldn’t have been any more impressive, couldn’t he?” Whateley exclaimed.

“I thought Buckaroo would beat him on Saturday and then at the 300m you go, ‘yeah, he’s gonna beat him and this is gonna be a perfectly good run.’

“But that (Sir Delius) surge out the end was absolutely eye catching.

“Is Sir Delius the rightful Melbourne Cup favourite?”

Gately believes the Group 1 winner has all the attributes to run out the two-mile distance of the Melbourne Cup, however he wants to see it in action first.

“I think he still has to tick the super endurance box, the 3200m,” Gately told SEN’s Whateley.

“He’s the son of Frankel, as a rule they do tend to keep on improving.

“Everything I see from him tells me he’s a stayer, he’s an endurance athlete.

“He takes a bit of time to build, then once he does he seems to just get stronger and stronger.

“I don’t even think he relished the Caulfield track on Saturday, but the way he picked up and surged to the line that’s been a trait in all three of his runs in Australia.”

Despite Sir Delius beating Buckaroo in the race, Gately admitted he has no clue who the better horse is.

“I still don’t know after this race who the better horse is,” Gately revealed.

“The reason is I think Sir Delius had a more economical run and Buckaroo was second-up 1400m to 1800m.

“When he won this race last year brilliantly, he was third-up. So, I just wonder if he was even a quarter of a run short maybe.

“I think what that does tell is, is they’re both really good.”

The conversation moved to Sir Delius’ biggest threat in the Melbourne Cup – Al Riffa.

Al Riffa will be carrying the top weight in the Cup at 59kg, making Gately question whether the stallion can win.

“The Melbourne Cup has gone from that handy, tough stayer to being that world class horses race,” Gately said.

“You really have to be a world class athlete and Al Riffa is certainly that.

“But it’s a handicap, so that brings him in theory and in practice back to the rest of the field.

“He’ll be right at the top of the market because of his class, but history tells you that it’s not easy to win with that sort of weight.”

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