The Bart Cummings-trained Prince Arthur showed he was destined for bigger things when producing a devastating performance to win the Australia Day Cup at Randwick.

Friday's win gave Cummings his second Listed race success in a row after he took out the Frank Underwood Cup (2000m) at Rosehill on January 13.

Ridden to perfection by Darren Beadman, Prince Arthur had the 2400m event shot to pieces 200 metres from home and went on to win the $100,000 Listed race in race record time of 2:30.84.

Beadman rode patiently until making his move from sixth place at the 400 metres mark, and when he let the four-year-old down he exploded and in the end blitzed Taken At The Flood by 4-3/4 lengths with Grandiloquent a further 1-1/4 lengths back third.

Prince Arthur started the $2.10 favourite, while Fashfield who finished last was the second pick at $5.

Cummings, the 11-time Melbourne Cup winning trainer, is in New Zealand to purchase yearlings, but his foreman John Thompson was delighted with the performance.

"We weren't expecting that," Thompson said.

"That was another step up."

Originally Cummings decided that Prince Arthur wouldn't be tackling 2400 metres this campaign.

"We weren't going to at this stage of his career but he's been going so well and racing so consistently that we thought we'd give him a run," Thompson said.

"He's only lightly raced but he is already developing into a nice stayer."

Thompson was quick to praise the ride of Beadman.

"He adds two lengths," Thompson said of the champion jockey.

"He just cuddled him and cuddled him and when he needed to take off he had plenty of horse under him."

Trainer Paul Cave was pleased with the effort from Christmas Cup winner Taken At The Flood.

"That was a top run, but he got back further than I would have liked," Cave said.

"There was plenty of speed on but my horse doesn't race his best on this track.

"I was surprised and upset that a quality race like this was run on the Kensington track."

Cave trained the winner of last year's Australia Day Cup, Respect, who he'll fly over to watch run in Saturday's Wellington Cup in New Zealand.

But Friday belonged to Prince Arthur and Beadman predicted a big future for the horse.

"He was doing a few things wrong early this prep but he's got a good trainer," Beadman said.

"To win these stayers' races you need to be mentally right and the penny might have dropped for him.

"He's pretty exciting, he put a gap in them pretty quickly."

PIC - Sportpix.

© AAP 2010 Published 26/01/07