Holmes El Dorado Dreaming Ahead Of Cup Tilt

A win for El Dorado in Saturday night's Melbourne Cup would mean more than a big cheque for trainer Daryl Holmes.

The veteran conditioner practically grew up at Sandown Park, and the dream of winning the club's flagship race would be the ultimate achievement for a trainer who has spent his lifetime in the sport.

"I was born and bred in Clayton which is about 10km up the road, I lived for 25 years in Noble Park which is the neighboring suburb,” Holmes said.

“All my early days racing and trialling at Sandown all the time, and I was a director there for three years. I'd love a dollar for every minute I've been there."

Celebrations all around as El Dorado shoots through to the Melbourne Cup Final with ease ?

Next week is already shaping up to be special pic.twitter.com/iOJOHu4DAa

— Sandown Greyhounds (@sandowndogs) November 19, 2022

It will be Holmes's second Melbourne Cup final after Petite Verdot ran sixth in the 2003 edition of the race. The race carried $200,000 in prize money then, a far cry from the more than $1m on offer in Saturday night's final. While the prizemoney is massive, for the lifelong greyhound trainer a win in the Cup would be the ultimate achievement.

"It's the best race in the country from my point of view, prestige wise,” he said.

"It'd just be the pinnacle. I've had some good dogs and I haven't won too many big races – I won the Maturity and the Sandown Cup years ago – but this would easily be my biggest achievement.

"But we're not thinking about winning it at the moment. We're just hoping the dog gets his chance and gets around in one piece."

?? EL DORADO is in ??

EL DORADO has qualified for the Group 1 @sportsbetcomau #MelbourneCup Final at @sandowndogs.

Don't miss it ?? https://t.co/vbPqsvfEad#GreyhoundRacing #DreamChasersFestival pic.twitter.com/6vHO7VK4PP

— WatchDog Racing (@WatchDogRacing) November 19, 2022

El Dorado started his career in July 2021, winning five of his first 10 starts – with all of those wins coming at Sandown Park – however a recurrent hip support injury forced Holmes to ‘start over' which set up his Melbourne Cup campaign.

"He's a really quiet dog – you've got to check for a heartbeat sometimes – you can walk him on a piece of cotton,” Holmes said.

"He had a few injuries early on so we put him back to basics, went back to Traralgon and Warragul and got a good foundation over six runs and since then he's taken a while to put it together. We needed to toughen him up, get him really fit before taking him back to the tighter tracks, it's held him in good stead.

"It (the Melbourne Cup) has always been in the back of my mind. But I'm a firm believer in getting the dog right and then look at the calendar."

El Dorado entered the Melbourne Cup series in strong form boasting recent wins over fellow Cup finalists Plaintiff and Paddy Wants Pats and earned his place in the final with an impressive heat win in the wet and wild conditions that greeted the runners on heats night.

Exiting box two, El Dorado stepped with the field in his heat last Saturday, driving beneath Shipwreck and Keep It Black to hold track position past the judge the first time.

Riding contact as he worked through the first turn, he quickly accelerated away from the field down the back to record the fastest heat win in 29.35.

It'll be a different assignment in the final when he steps from box seven, however Holmes believes the race maps well for his chances.

"I wasn't too fussed with the box at all,” he said.

“Paddy Wants Pats in the pink isn't going to help me but his record from seven and eight is very good even though he's really a railer. In those sorts of races it's not necessarily the box you get it's where the others are drawn."

Which, in Holmes' opinion, makes the $11 about El Dorado all the more mystifying.

"I can't believe the price of my dog – I reckon he's half that myself. Paddy Wants Pats is a good dog, but for some reason the eight at Sandown is a horror draw these days. I've just got to stay out of his way. If Paddy runs 5.01, well I'll be out of his way, I'll behind him. My bloke works across pretty hard so we'll see what happens.

"I just hope my bloke is three wide at the judge with nothing coming down on top of me because he doesn't mind going into the bend a bit wide, he seems to handle it better than if he's on the fence. If you watch the replay last week he scrambled a bit when he got to the apex of the corner – he does it every time.

"(But) he's a real chaser. He wants to get it, he doesn't shirk the issue and I think he's getting better."