Cranbourne Cup, Shooting Stars options are Oh Too Good for hobby trainer Kevin Daffy

Kevin Daffy has one horse but multiple options this week and beyond – and they include a potential start in a million-dollar race.

Oh Too Good (right), pictured driving to the line behind Electric Impulse (centre) in the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final, is on a Cranbourne Cup path. Picture: Michael Klein

Kevin Daffy has one horse but multiple options this week – and beyond.

The Pakenham hobby trainer – a window manufacturer during regular business hours – has Oh Too Good entered for the Cranbourne Cup and Shooting Stars on Saturday.

“I’m not sure in which race,” Daffy said.

“I’ve got her entered in both the Cranbourne Cup and the Shooting Star race, for horses with 10 starts or less, which would be a very suitable race for her as well.

“She may not get a run in the cup … but I think she’d be more than up to it, we’ll have a look early in the week (nominations) and see how those two races are shaping up and pick one.

An unexpected but welcome further consideration is Oh Too Good interest from a slot-holder in the $1m Supernova (1400m) on Pakenham Cup Day – December 21.

“I had planned her to be in the paddock by then, getting prepared for an autumn campaign,” Daffy said.

“But the opportunity to race at our home track, which we love, we love the Pakenham track, and potential of maybe running in a $1m race might be worth keeping her in work.”

Daffy spent six months targeting the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final second-up after a Geelong qualifier but gut-wrenchingly went “0.06” short of the $275,000 first prize.

What a finish 👀

ELECTRIC IMPULSE gets the last laugh as she salutes in the Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final.

🎥 @wwos | #OaksDay | #MelbCupCarnivalpic.twitter.com/x43RqcNHlN

— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 7, 2024

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“She pulled up much better than her trainer,” Daffy lamented.

“It was a huge run. Very proud of her. Probably the barrier that beat her in the end.”

Oh Too Good, a numerologist’s special having alternated wins and seconds in six starts to date, boasts a combined career losing margin of ¾ quarters of a length – or 0.766 officially.

“She doesn’t know how not to do her best and she’s very competitive,” Daffy said.

“Not many like her, she just wants to win.”

Form out of the Country Final has already been franked with third-placed Torranzino winning the Victorian Country Cups Final at Caulfield last Saturday.

"Torranzino over the top's got them!"

Torranzino times his run to overrun them in the Country Cups Final 🙌 pic.twitter.com/hugedvEJyG

— Racing.com (@Racing) November 16, 2024

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Hiyaam Proud, who finished fourth, was touched off in the Benchmark 74 at Caulfield.

Daffy, son of late Camperdown trainer Geoff, took out a trainer’s license after his father died in 2020 and bought Oh Too Good as a yearling out in a private sale out of a paddock.

“I was very involved when I was younger … I trained when I was 18, dad was unwell for six or 12 months and had some time off and trained for him then,” Daffy said.

“We had quite a bit of success and did fancy myself at the caper a little bit, but unfortunately never pursued it for the last 30-odd years.

“Things took me in a different direction, kids in private school, life moves you along. I always wanted to one day (get back into it), I felt there was something missing.

“Unfortunately lost dad just at the start of Covid, so I thought then I’d take a step and I was in a position to be able to do that, get my license and this is the first horse I got.

“She’s taken four years to get to this point, it’s been a bit of a process … that was her sixth start, she’s still a baby in my eyes, she’s five (age) but still very much learning her craft.”

Jockey Damian Lane has been booked to ride Oh Too Good on Saturday.

“He’ll ride her no matter which race she goes, he’d been booked for the two runs (Geelong and Flemington) six months ago, so he was part of the original plan,” Daffy said.

“Very happy that Damian is part of the team, I rate him as the best jockey in Australia, that’s what I think of him.”

Originally published as Cranbourne Cup, Shooting Stars options are Oh Too Good for hobby trainer Kevin Daffy