THERE are three Irish-trained horses in next Tuesday’s A$6 million Emirates Melbourne Cup.
Bondi Beach, Wicklow Brave and Heartbreak City will attempt to give Ireland a third victory in the famous Flemington two-miler, following the historic victories for Vintage Crop (1993) and Media Puzzle (2002).
European horses have a great recent record in this handicap. Although the Willie Mullins-trained Max Dynamite lost out narrowly to local galloper Prince Of Penzance last year, the previous five winners – Protectionist, Fiorente, Green Moon, Americain and Dunaden – began their racing careers in the northern hemisphere.
Bondi Beach will have the assistance of Ryan Moore, who won the race two years ago on Protectionist. Lightly raced this term, Bondi Beach has strong Group 1 form from his three-year-old career and actually ran in the Cup last year, finishing a close 10th.
He will run in the colours of leading Australian owner Lloyd Williams, who also has shares in Cup contenders Almandin, Assign and Gallante.
Heartbreak City represents a first runner in the race for trainer Tony Martin. A French import, Heartbreak City came to Ireland with a rating of just 79 and his first six starts here were over hurdles. A 12-length win on the flat at Cork in March saw him soar up the ratings. He went on to win a handicap hurdle very cosily at the Galway Festival before bolting up in the Ebor Handicap at York in August.
That win came off a BHA mark of 103 and, comparing Heartbreak City’s Cup weight with that of the other Irish horses, it appears that the Australian handicapper has only put him up 7lb for his York win, which seems lenient. Another big factor in his favour is that top Hong Kong jockey Joao Moreira has been booked to ride.
At York the horse raced for the Here For The Craic Syndicate, a lively bunch to say the least. They remain involved but a major share in the seven-year-old has been sold to Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock. ATB have gone close to winning the Cup before with European purchases Jakkalberry and Dandino.
Wicklow Brave earned his place in the line-up by virtue of his shock Irish St Leger win. That was a four-runner race in which he was allowed to dominate – very different circumstances to those he will encounter next week though, of course, he has proven his ability in big fields over hurdles.
Nevertheless, he looks the outsider of the three Irish contenders. His owner Nick Peacock also campaigned Simenon, who finished fourth in the 2013 edition of the Cup.
Local favourite is Hartnell, a former Royal Ascot winner over two miles when trained by Mark Johnston. Now trained by John O’Shea for Godolphin, the Authorized gelding has been a star for connections this season and was far from disgraced when second to the mighty Winx in the 10-furlong Cox Plate last Saturday.
Next in the betting comes the mare Jameka, an Australian-bred daughter of Irish sprinter Myboycharlie. She looked top-class winning the 12-furlong Caulfield Cup two weeks ago and picked up a 1.5kg (3.5lb) penalty for that. Another tenuous Irish connection here is that she is trained by Ciaron Maher, who famously brought over Ruby Walsh to ride his Australian Grand National winner Bashboy last year.
It looks like there will be five British runners, headed by the Michael Bell-trained Big Orange, who finished fifth last year. The other four runners from Britain are owned by Godolphin. Charlie Appleby runs Caulfield Cup runner-up Scottish and Geelong Cup winner Qewy. Saeed bin Suroor runs the mare Beautiful Romance and recent Ayr winner Secret Number.
The final field will be known after racing today (Saturday) as the winner of today’s Lexus Stakes is entitled to jump the queue and be added to the Cup field.
As usual the race will be shown live on At The Races. It is also being streamed live on Twitter in what is a first for the popular social media platform.
Twitter: @FlemingtonVRC