Australian Cup on radar for 3yo Palentino

All going well, Australian Guineas Palentino will back up against the older horses in the Australian Cup.

The Darren Weir-trained three-year-old survived a protest to win Saturday's Group One Guineas (1600m) at Flemington.

Weir said the colt had coped well with Guineas day which included a trip from the trainer's Warrnambool base to Melbourne and back.

He said as long as he continued to please his Warrnambool foreman Jarrod McLean, Palentino would return to Flemington to run in Saturday's weight-for-age Australian Cup (2000m).

"A lot of them don't eat up when they get home but there was no feed left in his feed bin on Sunday morning, Jarrod said," Weir told Melbourne radio station RSN.

"Palentino went for a wade at the beach and trot and canter and Jarrod said he felt really good.

"We'll just monitor him over the next couple of days and hopefully he does well enough so we can back him up on Saturday."

The most recent three-year-old to win the Australian Cup was Super Cool in 2013.

Palentino is at $7 behind Godolphin's Bow Creek ($3.20) and import Our Ivanhowe ($6) with acceptances to be taken on Wednesday.