Champion jockeys aim to repeat Cup heroics

MELBOURNE: Twilight Payment does not have a lot going for him in his bid for back-to-back Melbourne Cup victories but that has not swayed Jye Mcneil from taking the ride.
No nine-year-old, which Twilight Payment is under southern hemisphere time, has won the Cup and only Makybe Diva, in the third of her victories, has carried 58kg, since Think Big won with 58.5kg in the second of his wins in 1975.
But on a positive note, trainer Joseph O’Brien is making the trip from Ireland to watch today’s 3,200m race as he bids to claim a third Melbourne Cup having also won with Rekindling in 2017.
Twilight Payment last year was McNeil’s first ride in the Cup which he described as overwhelming.
“I went into it with not a lot of pressure and knowing what I had to do,” McNeil said.
“I wasn’t sure of the speed and tempo I needed to go being my first ride in the Cup, but I was very pleased when it all came together and worked out the way it did.”
Twilight Payment carried 55.5kg last year and was a relative outsider at A$26 (about K67) whereas today he is currently the third favourite at A$13 (K33) with Totalisator Agency Board behind Incentivise at A$2.80 (K7) and Spanish Mission at A$12 (K30).
Whereas Twilight Payment was able to dictate the pace having drawn barrier 12, it will be a different scenario from gate two on this afternoon.
“He’s an on-pace runner and it will be important in the early stages to be holding our position from barrier two and make sure we get into the best possible position that suits him,” McNeil said. “There will be a bit of pressure coming from out wide and we’ll have to see where we fit in, but all reports are the team are very happy with where he is at and travelled over and I’m very fortunate to be on him again this year.”
Last year McNeil won a crowdless Cup and this year there will be 10,000 on course, a tenth of a normal Cup Day crowd. “I’ve been there on other days when I haven’t ridden in the Cup but ridden on the day, so I have experienced the atmosphere, but obviously not when I won it,” McNeil said.
“It would be good to get him home and to also give him a cheer for last year as well.”
Meanwhile, Kerrin McEvoy is hoping to join Bobbie Lewis and Harry White as a four-time Melbourne Cup winner when he partners Grand Promenade at Flemington.
Mcevoy was a 20-year-old apprentice jockey and the second youngest in Melbourne Cup history when he took out Australia’s great race on Brew.
Today, McEvoy will be attempting to equal the riding record of Bobbie Lewis and Harry White with four winners in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.
Since Brew’s victory in 2,000, McEvoy has posted Melbourne Cup wins on Almandin (2016) and Cross Counter (2018) and partners Grand Promenade for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace today.
McEvoy said Brew’s win was still vivid in his memory.
“It was a special day, that’s for sure,” McEvoy said.
“It obviously zoomed me off into my senior career as a jockey and I’m forever thankful for Brew and Mick Moroney.” – justhorseracing

Rider Prebble balancing factory work and racing

MELBOURNE: Racing has its superstar jockeys and its factory floor tradesmen — but rarely are they the same person.
Brett Prebble certainly won’t be floating off into Melbourne’s high society life if he wins the Melbourne Cup on favourite Incentivise.
That’s because he has a job to do.
Prebble’s “day job” — designing, manufacturing and distributing whips and a vast array of other horse riding equipment from his East Keilor factory — makes him tick just as much as riding big race winners.
And regardless of how Incentivise fares on the first Tuesday in November, Prebble and his Persuader company will be winners.
“I’d say 100 per cent of the jockeys riding in the Melbourne Cup will be using my gear in one way or another, some might have a whip, some might have some boots, some might have a saddle and some might googles or gloves,” Prebble said.
“James McDonald walked into my factory a few days ago and picked out a few things that he didn’t have.
“Then he went and got his whip out of the car, his favourite one that we made him last month, and he just said ‘give me two more of these’.
“I just copied it and made the weights the same, the grip the same and the flex the same, the same thickness.
“James and I are very good friends and it’s great supplying top jockeys with our gear.
“Jockeys really specifically know what they like with whips. A lot of our stuff is custom-made or in different colours.
“It’s always urgent when jockeys need gear, they never say they might need it in two weeks or in a month.”
Persuader’s business has evolved rapidly since beginning in 2001 when Prebble and his business partner were first approached to design and manufacture whips.
While most other professional sportspeople have a work-life balance, Prebble has something of a work-work balance. – Racenent

Floating Artist picked over training mates for Melbourne Cup

MELBOURNE: The last of training partners Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s four runners to make the Melbourne Cup field has emerged as the bookmakers’ pick of the quartet.
Floating Artist scraped into Australia’s greatest race at the entry deadline and the United Kingdom import shares the fifth line of betting as a A$16 (about K41) chance.
He will be one of the lightweight threats with 50kg, giving stable apprentice Teo Nugent his first Melbourne Cup ride.
Floating Artist is in his first Australian campaign after winning twice in 10 starts in England under Richard Hannon.
A six-year-old, Floating Artist has been an instant success for Saturday’s Victoria Derby-winning stable with three victories to go alongside two placings at stakes level.
The most recent of those placings came in a desperately unlucky defeat in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup.
Eustace expects Floating Artist to run well today but is loathe to single one stablemate out over another.
“To be honest, and I know it’s fence-sitting, but you can make a case for all four of them,” Eustace told RSN.
Maher and Eustace will match Chris Waller’s representation of four runners with Persan, Grand Promenade and multiple Derby winner Explosive Jack also lining up.
Persan ran fifth in last year’s race but is a A$41 (K105) chance despite finishing third to Incentivise in the Caulfield Cup last month.
Incentivise has been a short-priced Melbourne Cup favourite since his crushing win at Caulfield as he chases a rare double in Australian racing.
Standing in Incentivise’s way will be a leaner but nevertheless worthy international challenge.
In a representation well down on recent editions, two overseas-trained horses are left to take on Incentivise — last year’s winner Twilight Payment and the well-credentialled Spanish Mission.
The Cup is expected to run on a good surface with temperatures forecast to reach 30 degrees on Tuesday. – Racenet

Verry Elleegant gives McDonald chance at redemption

MELBOURNE: A Derby day masterclass has come with a bonus for champion jockey James McDonald after the outstanding racemare Verry Elleegant was confirmed as a Melbourne Cup starter.
Two days after his Cup ride on Away He Goes fell by the wayside because of an injury to the United Kingdom stayer, McDonald will be reunited with one of his favourite horses.
Verry Elleegant ran seventh in last year’s Melbourne Cup but convinced trainer Chris Waller she was worthy of another shot at Australia’s greatest race after a track gallop on Saturday.
“Following a nice piece of work … we have made the decision to run Verry Elleegant on Tuesday in the Melbourne Cup,” the Waller stable said.
Verry Elleegant has won nine times at racing’s highest level and McDonald has been in the saddle for seven of those victories.
McDonald showed why he is as gifted as any rider in the world with four winners on Victoria Derby day to open the Melbourne Cup carnival in superb touch.
Three of them were for Waller, including the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes on Home Affairs as he equalled a Derby day riding record.
And not surprisingly, the jockey is backing Australia’s best trainer to the hilt in declaring Verry Elleegant a live chance at Flemington today.
“Obviously (the stable) has been to-ing and fro-ing about a start but they must be very happy with her,” McDonald said.
“I am sure she will be running well, she always runs well.”
Verry Elleegant goes into the Melbourne Cup after a last-start minor placing in the WS Cox Plate, scouting wide as the first two home took inside runs.
Bookmakers rate Verry Elleegant a A$15 (about K38) chance from barrier 19 but she will start shorter if there is any rain on Cup day.
The barrier draw has made little difference to latest Cup betting with Incentivise having a stranglehold on the market as a A$2.30 (K6) chance.
An emphatic winner of the Caulfield Cup, Incentivise will start from barrier 16 with the UK stayer Spanish Mission drawn two gates to the favourite’s inside. – Yahoo Sports Australia

Stable hoping to add first Melbourne Cup trophy to cabinet

MELBOURNE: Having secured a first Victoria Derby, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace stable is looking to add a first Melbourne Cup trophy to the cabinet.
Hitotsu won Saturday’s Derby and on Tuesday Maher and Eustace will saddle four runners for their attempt at Australia’s great race at Flemington.
This year’s quartet — Explosive Jack, Persan, Grand Promenade and Floating Artist — look their strongest hand yet, although there is a major stumbling block in Cup favourite Incentivise.
“Looking at him (Incentivise) he will run two miles (3,200m),” Maher told RSN.
“I don’t think you can find a chink in his armour, but it is a handicap.
“Two miles with that sort of weight, he’ll have to be right up to his best to do it, but it is probably his to lose.”
Explosive Jack, a three-time Derby winner during his three-year-old season, is the highest-weighted of the team, but is coming off a poor showing in the Caulfield Cup at his last start. Maher said up until that stage Explosive Jack had been progressing well.
“One of the owners, Tim Porter, told me the other day that his sire Jakkalberry did the same thing, ran 13th in the Caulfield Cup and then ran third to Green Moon in the Melbourne Cup,” Maher said. – justhorseracing

Legendary trainer backs Incentivise

MELBOURNE: The last trainer to score the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double is tipping modern freak Incentivise to achieve the same feat — provided the boom horse has recovered from his “extraordinary” Caulfield Cup triumph.
Sheila Laxon will always have a special place in racing history.
She trained mighty mare Ethereal to become just the 11th horse to claim the coveted Cups double in 2001 and will be forever credited with officially being the first woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner.
Laxon, who now trains a team of horses with John Symons on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, watched Incentivise from close at hand when the Melbourne Cup favourite started to build his winning streak in the Sunshine State earlier this year.
Twenty years after Ethereal did the incredible, she believes Incentivise can create a new slice of racing history by scoring the Cups double.
“The way Incentivise won the Caulfield Cup was extraordinary, he was parked wide and had a torrid run and then to kick away in the straight like he did, he is a phenomenal horse,” Laxon said.
“I have no doubt he has got the ability to win the Cups double this year.
“As long as the Caulfield Cup run hasn’t flattened him, and maybe it did take the edge off him a little bit, then he is going to be the one to beat.”
It’s the time of year when epic memories come flooding back for Laxon who still gets emotional when she thinks of Ethereal and her amazing effort two decades ago.
Of all the memories Laxon holds close to her heart, it is one of her then teenage son John in the grandstands at Flemington that gets her spine tingling all over again. – Racenet

Spanish Mission primed for crown

MELBOURNE: English trainer Andrew Balding has drawn an ominous comparison to Spanish Mission’s campaign with how the Melbourne Cup second favourite was tracking before a pulsating Lonsdale Cup clash against Stradivarius.
A repeat of the Lonsdale Cup performance at Flemington would see Spanish Mission blitz Australia’s best stayers unless “formidable opponent” Incentivise manages to impersonate Stradivarius.
Spanish Mission went stride-for-stride in an enthralling 400m battle with Stradivarius — the undisputed best stayer in Europe on dry ground — only to go down in a tight photo finish.
Since arriving in Werribee last month Spanish Mission has completed three “very solid” pieces of work to be tuned up nicely for the $8m Flemington conquest.
Based on all available indicators — raw data and the eyes of Tony and Tom Noonan, Balding family friends and caretaker trainers — the raider looms an imposing adversary on Tuesday.
Every stride of Spanish Mission’s high performance and recovery has been tracked by a wearable sensor, feeding information real-time to the Balding-Noonan camp.
“It all stacks up, the horse is pretty much mimicking what he’d done before the Lonsdale,” Balding said from the picturesque Park House Stables, Kingsclere, England.
“He’s a long way away from us to really have a handle on it, but all the apparatuses we can use suggest we’re in good shape.”
The feedback from Kingsclere-bred Melbourne-based Godolphin track rider Neil Varley has been critical.
Varley served as apprentice jockey to Balding’s father Ian. – Racenet