It’s Somewhat will now head to the Group 1 $4m Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on April 9, the first day of ‘The Championships’, after slugging out a tough win at Rosehill today.

James McDonald was able to lift the odds favourite It’s Somewhat ($1.75) over the line to take out the Group 3 $150,000 The Daily Telegraph Neville Sellwood Stakes (2000m).

Pacemaker Messene ($10) with Tommy Berry dictating the speed, fought on doggedly all the way down the straight before the John O’Shea trained It’s Somewhat got the upper hand close to the finish to score a neck win.

Sir John Hawkwood ($8.50) made up some good ground in the straight to fill third sport, a further three quarters off a length away.

O’Shea said that the English import would be sent to Brisbane for the Group 1 $650,000 Doomben Cup (2000m) at Doomben on May 21 but first It’s Somewhat would run in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

“The winner of this race last year was dominant in the Doomben Cup and this horse I think that is where he is headed as well,” O’Shea said.

“We are toying with the idea of running him in the Queen Elizabeth. Primarily because most of the weight for age races in Australia this year have been trot and canters and he is a horse that will bowl along up on the speed.”

“He has had a run at ten furlongs now. He has run third in an Eclipse Stakes in Europe so he has good ten furlong form.”

“We will see how he pulls up and see what James has to say after the race.”

“They have to have a run at ten furlongs somewhere and he has plenty of gas left in the tank, but ideally his level is at Doomben, but we had to run him somewhere along the way.”

It’s Somewhat was stepping up sharply in distance today and O’Shea was pleased with the way the five year old gelding toughed out the finish.

“He was 1500m to ten furlongs and be fair to the Hawkes boys, they made it a genuine test, had fit horses and made us work all of the way,” O’Shea said.

“That will toughen him up.”

Neville Sellwood Stakes Results

Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Starting Price
1	2	IT’S SOMEWHAT (USA)	John O’Shea	James McDonald	–	6	56.5kg	$1.75F
2	3	MESSENE	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Tommy Berry	0.3L	3	56.5kg	$10
3	6	SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD (IRE)	David Vandyke	Blake Spriggs	1.1L	5	55.5kg	$8.50
4	9	GHOST PROTOCOL (IRE)	Paul Perry	Thomas Huet	3.3L	1	55kg	$41
5	5	ENTIRELY PLATINUM (NZ)	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Dwayne Dunn	3.6L	8	55.5kg	$6
6	1	MAGIC HURRICANE (IRE)	John O’Shea	Damien Oliver	3.7L	7	58kg	$17
7	11	ZARZALI	James Cummings	Craig Williams	6.2L	2	53kg	$18
8	10	TAKEWING	Jason Coyle	Jay Ford	7.5L	4	55kg	$41