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Two years on from his triumph in the Australian Derby (2400m), the star stayer struck again with a spectacular finish in Saturday’s A$2m Group One Schweppes Sydney Cup (3200m). Bought for $100,000 from Book 1 of Karaka 2019, he has now had 18 starts for six wins, four placings and A$3.18m in stakes.

Explosive Jack was one of the standout three-year-olds in Australia two seasons ago, not only winning Randwick’s Derby but also adding the Group One South Australian Derby (2500m), the Listed Tasmanian Derby (2200m), and a placing in the Group One Queensland Derby (2400m).

The top-quality gelding was unplaced in four starts as a four-year-old before being side-lined by injury, but showed some good signs early in his five-year-old preparation with a placing in last month’s Listed Canberra Cup (2000m).

He stepped back up to the big time on Saturday and produced one of his very best performances.

“That was absolutely fantastic,” said David Eustace, who trains in partnership with Ciaron Maher. “It’s been the plan for a long, long time.

“He had an injury after the Melbourne Cup as a four-year-old. We said months ago that this was the race to have him spot-on for. It’s a great thrill to get this horse back, and a real credit to the whole team in managing him.

“Mid-race I was kicking and screaming, because they were going so slow and it just wasn’t going to help any of our runners. But it was a good performance for him to come from where he was. He showed a pretty good turn of foot there, to his credit.”

Apprentice jockey Dylan Gibbons rode Explosive Jack patiently in midfield behind a slow pace, then brought him to the outside rounding the home turn to make his run out of the pack.

Still a distant fourth with 100 metres remaining, Explosive Jack went into overdrive and sprinted past the leaders like they were standing still. The five-year-old swept to the front and opened up a three-quarter-length lead by the time he reached the finish line.

“It couldn’t have worked out better today, he gave me a beautiful ride,” said Gibbons, who celebrated the first Group One victory of his career.

“Once I got him out, I thought he was just going to whack away and run into a gallant third or fourth. But the others stopped and he didn’t. I’m just fortunate to get these opportunities. It’s hard to put apprentices on in these sorts of races, and I’ve been able to get the job done for them.”

Explosive Jack is out of the Listed-winning Extra Explosive (NZ) (Ekraar), who is a half-sister to the dam of the Group One New Zealand Derby (2400m) winner Vin De Dance (NZ) – who was also a Karaka graduate.

Explosive Jack is a half-brother to Pick Number One (NZ). He has won five races in Hong Kong, where he was named Champion Griffin in 2017-18, and has earned more than HK$4.8 milli