Horse Racing: Let's find you a winner! Take a look at some of the best lead-up runs by the top chances for the 2023 Melbourne Cup.
It’s here again - not just Australia’s greatest horse race but its biggest and most enduring cultural institution: the wonderful Melbourne Cup.
But that still won’t quite warm the hearts of the traditionalists who pine for the days of an old-style, pre-internationalised Cup where, helped by the handicap system, a battler from the bush could trump a toff from the big smoke. For what’s happening now is a lot of European horses are imported here, often for stacks of cash, in the months or couple of years before the big race, since they breed superior stayers there.
Outstanding looking stayer. Had the runs on the board in England to warrant a Cup raid last year. That didn’t go so well, but he did have gate 17 and had a very tough run out wide in transit. Then transferred to top local stable and has shown his class. Scored two dominant wins at the G2 and G3 level at the Brisbane winter carnival.
British import for Chris Waller who’s got talent but has cost himself a couple of times. Missed the start hopelessly in the Caulfield Cup last start. Had to burn petrol to gain a spot after that, and while he made ground in the straight he weakened in the end, as you’d expect. Was slow away before that when third in the Turnbull Stakes as well. Good news is, a slow start won’t cost him that much over this 3200m trip. But he is tackling that arduous distance for the first time.
Best long distance form: 1st - 3200m - G1 Melbourne Cup, November 2019; 2nd - 2600m - G2 Moonee Valley Cup, Oct 2023 Very interesting runner. Was brought out for the Cup in 2020 by the German trainer who won it in 2014 with Protectionist, and won the Archer on the Saturday then backed up well to run 10th in the Cup, though beaten only 4.8 lengths, after going back from a horror barrier and making good ground from 17th at the 400m. He transferred to Maher-Eustace after that, but was injured, and was out of action for almost three whole years until this spring.
Another import for the Waller stable. He was a fair second in last year’s Sydney Cup, but that was on a bog track, which he likes, and on a dry track like he’ll likely find here, he’s 6: 0-0-1. That said, while his form this prep looks pretty drab, his last-start eighth in the Moonee Valley Cup was on a dry, almost firm, track, and it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.
Another interesting runner, as a winner of one of the world’s most prestigious races, the English Derby, in 2020. He came here last year and lost a lot of form, except for his second in the Archer Stakes last Derby Day. He then went into the Melbourne Cup as a mildly respected $31 chance, but was essentially pulled up. This year, he’s gone better. Was fourth over 2500m here two runs back, then third in The Bart Cummings.
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