'A strange calm feeling': Litt relaxed about Castelvecchio's chances

Richard Litt heads into the biggest moment of his training career in Saturday’s Cox Plate with "a strange calm feeling.”

The pressure of training one of the most talked-about three-year-olds in the country has had him tense and stressed through the spring but after Castelvecchio worked and got into the Cox Plate field on Tuesday there was relief.

“I don’t know what it is, in the last couple of days I have just relaxed,” Litt said. “We wanted to get here and I feel for the first time this prep that the horse is ready to go and I have no doubts about him.

“Earlier in the week I was wondering if we had done the right thing because I wasn’t sure that he was going to get a run. I kept calling the club and asking but they wouldn't give anything away.

“He worked well on Tuesday then when they read his name out it was like the weight was lifted off my shoulders.

"It is a strange calm feeling, I have never had it before.”

I can look back and say I haven’t been comfortable going into any of those [spring] runs. That what makes Saturday different

Richard Litt

Castelvecchio has drawn attention since his debut at Canterbury last year when he came from last, more than a dozen lengths from the leader, on the turn to storm to victory.

"I knew we had something special when past the post pulling up he was six lengths in front of them," Litt said.

Castelvecchio would live up to that run throughout his juvenile year, winning the Inglis Millennium before placings in the Skyline Stakes and Sires Produce Stakes on his way to a record-breaking win in the Champagne Stakes.

That was Litt’s first group 1 victory in  five years of training. Castelvecchio had been his first group 1 runner in the Sires' where he was third to Microphone.

“I think having that group 1 makes this a bit easier this time but it was the way he did it as well,” Litt said. “There was a lot of pressure in the Champagne and he just loved it. They ran a second quicker than any Champagne before.

“He is only little but he seems to get pumped up by the big occasion, I have noticed that a couple of times. It is like he knows it is the big time.

“He is still a colt but we know he can just raise his level and that’s what makes me confident about him on Saturday.”

Litt always had the Cox Plate in the back of his mind for Castelvecchio. He thought the pressure of 2040m around the amphitheatre that is Moonee Valley would suit him better than the Victoria Derby.

Getting to Saturday wasn’t easy and although he hasn’t won in his three spring runs – fourth in the Dulcify Stakes at 1500m, seventh in the Golden Rose and runner-up in the Spring Champion Stakes two weeks ago – Litt knew in his heart that he wasn’t ready.

“We didn't want to bottom him first-up and then in the Golden Rose he really was out of his comfort zone and then last time he went from 1400m to 2000m, which was a huge ask,” Litt said. "He ran into a very good horse in Shadow Hero that was trained to peak on the day.

“I can look back and say I haven’t been comfortable going into any of those runs.

“That what makes Saturday different. He goes into the Cox Plate very well and just spending some time with him [in Melbourne] he is perfect at the moment.

"I think he can be closer from the draw and I'm not concerned about the pressure of the race. He loves that and with 49kg he is going to be finishing it off very hard."