Tawqeet pulls upset in Caulfield

Tawqeet earned the role as favorite for the Melbourne Cup Handicap with a victory at 22-1 in the Group 1, $1.9 million Caulfield Cup Handicap at Caulfield Racecourse in Australia on Saturday.

Tawqeet and rider Dwayne Dunn overcame trouble at the top of the stretch, where Dunn had to steady Tawqeet and angle him inward for a run that produced a neck victory over Aqua d'Amore. Delta Blues, one of two Japanese invaders trained by Katsuhiko Sumii, was a neck further behind in third in the 1 1/2-mile race.

Tawqeet, 4, who had won the 1 1/2-mile Metropolitan Handicap at Randwick in his previous start on Oct. 7, gave trainer David Hayes his second Caulfield Cup victory; he also won the race in 1993 with Fraar.

Trained in England last year by John Dunlop, for whom he finished third, six lengths behind Scorpion in the 2005 St. Leger Stakes, Tawqeet next will meet the Aidan O'Brien-trained Yeats, the winner of this year's Ascot Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup, in the two-mile Melbourne Cup on Nov. 7.