Castelvecchio shows he’s ‘real deal’

IN around 70 seconds, Richard Litt’s life changed forever.

This was the time it took his juvenile colt, Castelvecchio, to come from last and loop around the field to score a stunning win in the inaugural $2 million Inglis Millennium (1200m) at Warwick Farm yesterday.

There was no fluke about this win, either. Litt’s youngster gave everything a start and ran them down, defeating two- year-olds from the stables of Hall of Fame trainers Chris Waller (Accession) and Gai Waterhouse (Dawn Passage) in the process. Litt is only 29 and his win with Castelvecchio announced both trainer and horse as rising stars.

“I’m speechless,’’ Litt said. “This is what we do it for, what we get up (early) for and this horse seems the real deal.

“He does everything so easily. We haven’t pushed him, he was not even revved up for this race, he only had two gallops going into today.

“We were just happy to be here but winning a big race like this is just incredible.’’

With Castelvecchio ($21) Litt has shown he deserves to be in racing’s big league as his colt maintained his unbeaten record when he powered past favourites Accession ($2.40 favourite) and Dawn Passage ($2.70) to win by two lengths.