The last pieces of the international puzzle for Victoria’s 2018 Spring Carnival have fallen into place with nine horses entering UK quarantine facilities.
The nine will be based at quarantine facilities in either Newmarket (UK) or County Tipperary (Ireland) for the next fortnight, before eight of them board a flight which touches down at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport the morning of Saturday, 13 October.
Due to the space restrictions at Racing Victoria’s (RV) Werribee International Horse Centre, the horse with the lowest rating, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Master of Reality, would only board the flight should one of the other eight not travel.
The eight travellers will take the tally of carnival contenders to pass through Werribee this spring to 40 – a record number since Vintage Crop first paved the way for overseas raiders 25 years ago.
The highest-rated horse entering quarantine is Magic Circle, who is set to create intrigue when he arrives down under with his flamboyant owner Marwan Koukash hoping to land the prize he covets above all others – the $7.3m Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m).
Magic Circle, who is trained by Ian Williams and will be ridden by last year’s Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, Corey Brown, carries some seriously impressive form with him, having won both the Chester Cup (3700m) and the Group 3 Henry II Stakes (3200m) in emphatic fashion.
The same applies to Muntahaa, saddled by leading English trainer John Gosden whose son Thady will be familiar to Australian racing, having spent time working at Team Hayes’ Lindsay Park stable.
Muntahaa ran away with the Ebor Handicap (2800m), a race which has traditionally been used as a form line for the Melbourne Cup with the 2016 winner, Heartbreak City, going within a neck of claiming the ‘race that stops a nation’ later that year.
Having won the Melbourne Cup at the first time of asking with Rekindling last year, Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien will be aiming to go back-to-back with Latrobe in 2018.
Owned by Hall of Famer Lloyd Williams, the northern hemisphere three-year-old is already a winner of the Group 1 Irish Derby and, with 52kg on his back, will carry half a kilogram more into the Melbourne Cup than Rekindling.
Another horse also familiar to Australian audiences is Marmelo, who started as favourite for last year’s Melbourne Cup on the back of a fast-finishing sixth in the Stella Artois Caulfield Cup (2400m).
Hughie Morrison’s galloper has taken his performances to another level this season, with victories in the Listed Grand Cup Stakes (2700m) and the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil (2800m) supplemented by runner-up finishes in the Group 2 Prix Kergolay (3000m) and the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier (3000m), where he was beaten a neck by high-class French stayer Vazirabad.
Joseph’s father Aidan O’Brien, who has five horses from his Ballydoyle stable arriving on the first shipment on Saturday, could send three more on the second shipment, with Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) entrant Rostropovich, Idaho and The Pentagon (both Melbourne Cup hopefuls) set to join their stablemates Cliffs of Moher, Fleet Review, Spirit of Valor, Yucatan and Intelligence Cross on Victorian soil.
Rostropovich finished second in the Irish Derby to Latrobe, before winning a Group 3 race over 2400 metres at Leopardstown on September 15 to book his place on the plane; whilst Idaho is a frequent flyer, having raced at the highest level in Ireland, France, Canada, the USA, Japan and Dubai.
Group 1 placegetter The Pentagon was disappointing in the recent St Leger Stakes (2900m), won by his stablemate Kew Gardens, but he has a Group 3 win on his CV.
Nakeeta became the first horse trained in Scotland to compete in the Melbourne Cup when he finished fifth last year, and the eight-year-old is set to return this year for his trainer Iain Jardine.
Nakeeta came seventh behind Muntahaa in the Ebor Handicap, the race he won in 2017.
Latrobe’s stablemate Master of Reality has also entered quarantine in the hope of gaining a place on the plane. The three-year-old son of Frankel won twice in France, before he was purchased by Lloyd Williams and transferred to Joseph O’Brien.
On his debut for his new trainer, Master of Reality finished fifth behind Rostropovich in a Group 3 race in Leopardstown (Ireland).
The eight internationals will arrive on 13 October and complete their quarantine two weeks later, meaning they are free to compete from Cox Plate Day onwards.
High-class stayer Torcedor, who was assigned 57kg for the Melbourne Cup, had intended to travel but was a late withdrawal on vets’ advice after recording a high temperature.
The Aidan O’Brien-trained duo Flag of Honour and Kew Gardens, plus Willie Mullins’ pair Thomas Hobson and Max Dynamite also featured prominently in the early betting markets for the Melbourne Cup, but will not travel to Australia this year.
