FORTY-FIVE horses remain in the A$7.75 million Lexus Melbourne Cup after third declarations closed last Monday.

Fourth and final declarations will be taken at the conclusion of Saturday’s opening day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival with the barrier draw to follow shortly after. With Santiago withdrawn two weeks ago, Aidan O’Brien will be represented by Anthony Van Dyck and the current favourite, Tiger Moth.

Joseph O’Brien has Master Of Reality and Twilight Payment safely in the 24 with Pondus just missing out on a spot when he was a closing second off a wide trip in the Bendigo Cup on Wednesday. The Andreas Wohler-trained Ashrun, who is 29th on the Order of Entry, could get a place if winning the Hotham Stakes this morning.

Andrew Balding and Charlie Fellowes will be represented by Dashing Willoughby and Prince Of Arran respectively, while the strongest of the local hands are held by Danny O’Brien with four runners and the partnership of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace with three.

Crowds

Just days before Victoria declared two consecutive days of zero Covid-19 cases and no deaths, the Victoria Racing Club had announced that it had ruled out any crowds or owners being able to attend the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

A second wave of Covid-19 has gripped Melbourne since July resulting in a curfew and lockdown that stretched 110 days yet saw the virus spread brought back from a peak of 725 cases a day to this week which is seeing a relaxing of restrictions and a re-opening of retail.

“The changes that were announced today are fantastic, it’s good news for Victoria, the results today were great and we’re really excited that things are starting to open up,” said Victoria Racing Club chief executive officer Neil Wilson.

“It might give the opportunity for people to be together in other places – at homes and in venues – during Cup week but we won’t be having our members sadly and we won’t be having the public on course.”