The South Coast vet hasn’t quite come down from the elation of winning Saturday’s Victoria Derby (2500m) with impressive colt Tarzino, but was already looking to the future with the three-year-old star he holds part ownership in.

Tarzino is destined for the sport’s biggest stage. 

The Mick Price trained stayer will spend the next 12-months plotting a path towards the first Tuesday in November.

Last year’s Derby winner Preferment, trained by Chris Waller, will line up in this year’s Melbourne Cup and Lawler hopes Tarzino can follow a similar course a year down the track.

‘‘You can’t get ahead of yourself but we will probably look to give him a light autumn whether it involves the Sydney Cup or Australian Cup and then if his manners improve as most Zabeels tend to do, Mick was keen on taking the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup path next year should everything go to plan,’’ he said.

The last horse to go on and win the Cup after triumphing in the Derby was Efficient in 2006.

Tarzino showed he wouldn’t look out of place in the nation’s premier staying race with a dominant victory at Flemington on the weekend.

Sent out as the $2.90 fixed odds favourite with TAB Sportsbet, Craig Newitt never looked like letting punters down.

He surged to the front over the final two furlongs to defeat Godolphin’s Etymology by two lengths. It completed a ‘once in a lifetime’ fairytale for Lawler, who was on track to see the victory.

‘‘I got a bit more confident when Lee Freedman came up to me before the race and said it would just win,’’ he said.

‘‘When a Hall Of Fame trainer comes up to you and says something like that, you get a fair bit of confidence.

‘‘Racing is a game that conditions you for disappointment sometimes so it is nice to have a surprise like this.

‘‘It couldn’t have worked out any better.

“The last 400m was the slowest I have experienced.

‘‘It was a special day.”

The win was made more satisfying for Lawler, who discovered and purchased Tarzino himself in New Zealand in 2013.

He bought the son of Tavistock at the Karaka sales for $45,000 with a friend who died shortly after.

Lawler had every intention of selling the horse back in Australia and took Tarzino to the Gold Coast Magic Millions sale.

That’s where he came in contact with Price.

‘‘Mick was at the sales looking around for a nice horse and we are great mates so decided to do the business,” Lawler recalls.

‘‘I loved the horse and Mick asked how much I wanted to keep. I said ‘leave me in for a leg’.

‘‘We slowly pulled in a few clients, one of which was a mate of from Gerringong Jimmy Bergin.

‘‘When he ran at Pakenham, Brad Spicer from Spicer Thoroughbred’s said to me that he thought we had a Derby horse and Terry Bailey put a flashing light on it.’’

“He is like a kid with ADHD.

“He is not a bad horse, but is always looking for something to do."