Tulloch Lodge import Elamaz leaves bookies reeling after winning WJ McKell Cup

French import Elamaz landed a sizeable betting plunge in his first Australian start at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

Import Elamaz wins in the WJ McKell Cup at his Australian debut. Picture: Getty Images

Elamaz landed a sizeable betting plunge to give trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott a stable-best season of stakes wins and provide jockey Josh Parr with the third leg of a winning treble at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.

The former French galloper was backed from $4.60 earlier in the week into $2.15 favouritism and made all from the front to win at his Australian debut in the Listed $200,000 WJ McKell Cup (2000m).

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Although Elamaz’s winning margin was only slender – he had a short head to spare from the fast finishing Belvedere Boys – the five-year-old gelding created a big impression with his rider.

“I am quite taken by him,’’ Parr said.

“His demeanour was good, his action remarkable.

“The interesting part of it all is I wanted to be as kind as possible to him so he could get the 2000m first time on dry ground.

“Our plan wasn’t to lead, we were looking for cover but cover wasn’t going to eventuate so I pressed on to the front, trusted the stable and how well they had him, and he did the rest.

“There was a period down the side where he had no clue where he was leading the race at Rosehill but he fought off every challenger. What a brilliant performance by him,’’

Elamaz improved his race record to five wins and three seconds from just eight starts when he held off Belvedere Boys ($6.50) to score an exciting win with Glory Daze ($5.50) 1½ lengths away third.

First Australian win, and what a way to do it! 🇦🇺

Elamaz hangs on in a McKell Cup thriller! 🥳🏆 That's three winners to @JoshuaParr8 at Rosehill today!@GaiWaterhouse1@aus_turf_clubpic.twitter.com/1iB5IVdt2i

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) June 28, 2025

Waterhouse prepared her sixth win in the McKell Cup after previous successes with Grand Connection (1995), We’re Dancing (2002), Ecuador (2016), Hush Writer (2019) and Zoumon (2023). Elamaz gave Bott his third winner in the race since forming a training partnership with the Hall of Famer nearly a decade ago.

The boom French import’s win also provided Waterhouse and Bott with their 36th Group or Listed win for the 2024-25 season, a career-best for the training partnership.

Elamaz is raced in similar interests to stablemate Eliyass, who also came from France with a record of six wins and two second placings from eight starts before he won the Lord Mayor’s Cup over the Rosehill 2000m course at his Australian debut 12 months ago.

Eliyass trained on to win the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes defeating Ceolwulf then ran third to champion mare Via Sistina in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes.

There are obvious similarities between Eliyass and new stable recruit Elamaz which had not raced beyond 1600m in France before winning the McKell Cup first-up at 2000m.

Bott was interstate and Waterhouse overseas but their stable representative, Neil Paine, said the trainers have a very high opinion of Elamaz.

“Elamaz is an excellent horse. We were confident he would win today, albeit he fell in,‘’ Paine said.

“We actually didn’t think he would lead. Josh was given open instructions by Gai and Adrian, so it’s good the horse has another string to his bow that he can lead, he can run 2000m and he can win on a firm track. They are all plusses.

“And what can you say about Gai and Adrian, they do it all the time with these horses from overseas. We seem to have luck with them first-up.

“Sir Delius won first-up, so did Eliyass last year. Gai and Adrian bought four at the Goffs Sale recently and they have all gone to our owners. We love them.”

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s latest international success story Elamaz after winning his first Australian start at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday. Photo: Jeremy Ng/Getty Images.

Paine said Elamaz is obviously extremely versatile and could be aimed at either the Epsom Handicap (1600m) or The Metropolitan (2400m) in the spring.

“They were ‘umming and ahhing’ what to do after this, whether to give him a bit of a break and bring him back (for the spring),’’ Paine said.

“If he had of got beaten he probably would have had another run because our aim was to get him up in the ratings for the better races.

“But now that he has won this race that will help him get his rating up so Gai and Adrian will talk about what to do with him. A hard mile might be his go but who knows, he’s a very nice horse.’’

Elamaz also provided Parr with his third win of the day after the jockey won earlier on Rolling Magic and Thunderlips.

“I have been going to Brisbane and it has been a whitewash to be honest. I had a bit of luck early with Bosustow and then it was downhill from there,’’ Parr said.

“It just slowed my momentum up so I was really happy to take a good book of rides here today and they have turned up and delivered for me.’’

Originally published as Tulloch Lodge import Elamaz leaves bookies reeling after winning WJ McKell Cup