Have we already found our winner for the 2027 Caulfield Cup?

Expert analyst Nick Noonan certainly believes we may have.

And that horse is none other than the Chris Waller-trained Pinhole, who was 25th in the ballot order for the Melbourne Cup.

On Champions Stakes Day, the son of Frankel continued his impressive staying form, winning the Group 3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington across 2600m.

Reflecting on that victory, where the gelding also defeated former Melbourne Cup favourite Defiantly, Noonan has labelled the four-year-old as the horse to beat in next year’s Caulfield Cup.

“The biggest early crow of early crows here, but I'm thinking Point of Law might go to the Cox Plate. Proxima Dea might go to the Cox Plate. But the Caulfield Cup, we might have seen the Caulfield Cup winner, Pinhole,” Noonan said on RSN’s Correct Weight.

“This was an outrageous win. He's gone through the roof when you look at some of the times that have come back in.

“He should've been in the Cup, Pinhole. He probably should've won the Moonee Valley Cup. How he didn't get in for winning the Herbert Power, I'll never know.

“He'll be in the Cups next year and he'll be a force to be reckoned with. He is a great local hope.

“And I think he's only getting better with every run. We're seeing that in the yard, he just continues to improve, his attitude's getting better. I think he can improve physically as well, so he'll be live in the Cups next year.

“It'll be hard to beat Point of Law in the big one, but the Caulfield Cup, that might be his race. He's proper this horse, he's proper, proper.”

Champion trainer Chris Waller also identified the horse as an excellent stayer, explaining that the bay still has a lot of development ahead of him, but the future is “exciting”.

“He's a raw, unfurnished, exciting stayer in the making,” Waller revealed.

“He still does a few little things wrong, gets a bit keen without overdoing it. He's just an honest horse; he's sort of racing to every corner.

“If we could just harness that and get him finishing off well on the straight, he'll have a devastating turn of foot in the future. So, pretty exciting.”

Pinhole currently sits at $15 for the 2027 Caulfield Cup with Sportsbet, while the Melbourne Cup winner Point Of Law and Oaks winner Proxima Dea are the equal $8 favourites.

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