First Immortal primed to build on record in Easter Cup as spring qualifiers loom
Easter Cup favourite First Immortal notched a few firsts in his return win which bodes well for Saturday and his upcoming Cup qualifying targets.
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First Immortal has another first to tick off on Saturday before attention turns to Cups qualification.
The progressive stayer, trained by Mark and Levi Kavanagh, notched a first stakes success last start, first-up, at 1600m in the Listed Anniversary Vase at Caulfield.
The four-year-old, a $2.70 favourite with TAB for the Group 3 Easter Cup (2000m), had yet to win in three previous first-up attempts and not saluted below 1700m.
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“The way we train them is to be peaking in two or three runs time, not to be winning first-up, these staying horses,” Levi Kavanagh said.
“For him to be able to put it together and win at a mile, which he hadn’t done before, plus at Listed grade, which he hadn’t done before, plus first-up, which he’d never won at before, it is a great indication of how, hopefully, the preparation continues to go on.”
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After Saturday, First Immortal is set to contest the Caulfield Cup-qualifying Mornington Cup (2400m) on April 20 and “all going well” the Melbourne Cup ballot exempt The Andrew Ramsden (2800m) at Flemington on May 18.
“We know he likes 2000m, we know he likes Caulfield, so they’re all pluses this weekend … this maps perfectly for that (Mornington Cup), and then we’ve got The Andrew Ramsden in our sights, all going well.”
First Immortal is unbeaten in two starts at Caulfield, including a 3½ length 2000m Benchmark 78 romp last spring with 63kg second-up.
He shadowed the leader first-up last month at Caulfield and took over in the straight to win.
“He’s better at the 2000m trip, he’s going to be better after a run,” Kavanagh said.
“I didn’t want to put too much pressure first-up, saying he’s going there to win, the way he won was excellent, the way he jumped and put himself there.
“He goes in second-up with improvement taken from that run, it’s going to be exciting to see how he performs on Saturday, I think he can back it up and continue on in the manner he did the other day.”
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The Easter Cup should be genuinely run with Jennilala ($7) and Deny Knowledge ($12) among the speed influences.
“He went forward the other day and that panned out perfectly for him, it will just be how the pace gets judged on this occasion,” Kavanagh said.
“He’s drawn quite well, if there isn’t much pace he can go forward pretty easily, if there’s a lot of pace, he can settle off them.
“We don’t have to lead, most occasions he’s sat off the pace anyway.”
Mark Kavanagh won the 2007 Easter Cup with the late great Maldivian, the 2008 Cox Plate winner’s first Group success.
Originally published as First Immortal primed to build on record in Easter Cup as spring qualifiers loom
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