Trainer and jockey quotes following the Group 2 TAB Adelaide Cup won by Excelleration at Morphettville on Monday.

Race Result:

1st: Excelleration (R Cully/H Coffey) - $4.40
2nd: The Map (D Clarken & O MacGillivray/J Kah) - $3.80 fav
3rd: Skelm (T Kelly/M Poy) - $31

Winning Time: 3:23.49 Last 600m: N/A

Margins: Short Half Head x 3 lengths

What a race, what a finish & what a win for Excelleration & @HTCoffey pic.twitter.com/9w1RN8yAl5

— Racing.com (@Racing) March 11, 2024

Winning Trainer: Richard Cully (unavailable for comment)

Winning Jockey: Harry Coffey

Post-race debriefs: "When we were at Launceston the other day I nearly missed my ride in the next race in the presentations, they (owners) were talking about how it walked out as a foal at the yearling sales six years ago so I thought I'll go and weight in and come back out, there's plenty of time."

Newly formed association: "They were keen to give me a go, the owners and Richie (Cully), just being down in the weights and my ability to ride light at the drop of a hat and my success that I've had in Tasmania, they gave me a go and luckily enough I went down. It was sort of a no brainer, he's got great form, he's a classy horse and Richie's a brilliant trainer, he knows what he's doing so we were a little bit unsure whether we were going to come to Adelaide just with the two weeks between runs but as you've seen, it was the right idea."

How the race unfolded: "I just had to cop my medicine and I actually had him really well relaxed for the type of horse he is, and then Zac's (Spain) iron broke and I was like 'wowee, what am I going to do now?' because I didn't know what Zac was going to do and to Zac's credit he tried to ride a race without any irons and mind you he gave it a good steer because I was following him so I was able to sneak through. I was in two minds, I really rated the Dan O'Sullivan horse (One Last Kiss) with Luke Currie on it, I've ridden her a fair bit and this was a target race for her so I followed her for a long way, and Richie wanted me to cut the corner and I had in my mind I would've loved to have gotten on Jamie's (Kah) back at some stage but Ritchie was really keen to cut the corner and it worked- we cut the corner alright and we shot straight up the inside!"

Back to Victoria: "I'm going to ride one and then me and (Dean) Yendall are flying back to Horsham in a little plane and I tell you what, that ride there was a lot more enjoyable than the ride over so hopefully we'll be going alright on the way home!"

"They (owners) look like they could drink until the yearling's sales next week and then buy too many yearlings, don't they, so I'll be getting out of here!"