Father-and-son training combination Mark and Levi Kavanagh are looking for an even more profitable autumn with First Immortal after his first-up win at Caulfield.
First Immortal's autumn campaign launched with victory in the Listed Anniversary Vase (1600m) on Saturday which may lead to the gelding heading towards two ballot-exempt races for the spring cups.
First-up is likely to be the Mornington Cup (2400m) next month which provides the winner a free ticket into the Caulfield Cup followed by the Andrew Ramsden Stakes (2800m) at Flemington in May which provides a Melbourne Cup ballot exemption.
Ridden by Blake Shinn, First Immortal ($4.80) scored by a half-neck from The Summit ($17) with the $2.90 favourite Nugget a short-neck away in third place.
First Immortal holds on to win the Anniversary Vase 👏 @blake_shinn @MarkKavanaghRac pic.twitter.com/15dx6ermu7
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) March 16, 2024
Mark Kavanagh was emotional post-race discussing the performance of First Immortal.
"He's never won over a mile, he's never won first-up, so we might be having a bit of fun," Kavanagh said.
"We'll just take him along gently and see how we go from there.
"We'll just give him a light autumn into a couple of staying races and then just ease up and aim for the spring.
"Levi's pretty ambitious, and I reckon there's only one Cup…"
Shinn, who was associated with First Immortal during a three-year-old winter campaign, said the stayer had developed during a light summer break.
"I was looking at him on the TV when he was walking around and I just went, 'wow'," Shinn said.
"He paraded absolutely beautifully and he's just a bit more of a furnished product.
"Back last prep he was running great races in good spring races, but just probably mentally wasn't quite there.
"But they've done a great job and this prep he's come back a bit better in terms of application and probably physically is a little bit stronger.
"His last jump-out indicated to us that he's come back bang on track, and he replicated that today with a wonderful win."