THE first arrival of international horses for the Melbourne Spring Carnival completed their quarantine on Saturday before eight, all Irish-bred, headed off to Caulfield, returning some excellent results. Most interest centered around the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes over 2,000 metres with Johannes Vermeer running an excellent closing second for Aidan O’Brien, Riven Light was seventh, unfortunately injured during the race, and The Taj Mahal a disappointing tenth.

The Hugo Palmer-trained Wall Of Fire will go straight to the Melbourne Cup following an impressive second in the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes over 2,400 metres, won by the German-bred Lord Fandango and trained locally by Archie Alexander. Kidmenever was a lacklustre eighth in the same race for Charlie Appleby, but was found to have the ‘thumps’ post-race and will need to trial in front of stewards before he races next. Palmer’s stable also had Mask Of Time run fourth in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap over 1,600 metres and will take him to Moonee Valley on Cox Plate day for the Crystal Mile. Also in the Toorak Handicap was Kaspersky who led but faded to a disappointing 16th for Jane Chapple-Hyam.

William Haggas ran Fastnet Tempest in the Listed Weekend Hussler Stakes over 1,400 metres finishing eighth, beaten just three lengths. Withdrawn from the Herbert Power before acceptances was the Andreas Wohler-trained Red Cardinal, by Montjeu, who will go straight into the Melbourne Cup without a local start.

IRISH HORSES ARRIVE

More Irish-trained horses have arrived at Werribee quarantine centre ahead of their prospective targets at the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Rich Ricci’s Max Dynamite and Thomas Hobson arrived on Monday, alongside the Joseph O’Brien-trainer pair Rekindling and US Army Ranger.

Max Dynamite finished second in the 2015 Melbourne Cup when he was just denied by Prince Of Penzance, while both Thomas Hobson and Rekindling have been well supported with local bookmakers.

RULED OUT

Francis Of Assisi, Riven Light and Admire Deus have all sustained injuries ending their Melbourne spring campaigns. Francis Of Assisi was lame after working last Saturday morning at Werribee with a small hairline fracture of his pelvis revealed under inspection. The Willie Mullins-trained Riven Light broke down in Saturday’s Caulfield Stakes despite finishing seventh. “He’s fractured an off-fore joint and it’s a premature end to his Australian journey,” said Mullins.

The third campaign to end was that of the Japanese horse Admire Deus, an Australian Bloodstock import, who was to start in today’s Caulfield Cup. In his final piece of work with Johnny Allen up the he broke down badly with a struggle ahead of him to survive. “He ruptured all the ligaments off the back of his joint in the leg, the ones that hold the joint up,” said Darren Weir. “It was very upsetting for all involved.”