2007 Melbourne Cup Thread

[starz]

Australia on flu alert ahead of Melbourne Cup

Friday August 24, 2007
The Guardian

Australia's racing industry faces an anxious time in the run-up to its major event, the Melbourne Cup in November, following confirmation yesterday that more than 70 horses, including stallions from the US and Ireland, will be quarantined for 30 days due to fears that they have been in contact with equine influenza (EI).
European trainers hoping to send horses to Australia for the Melbourne Cup, including Aidan O'Brien and Luca Cumani, must also wait and hope that a recent outbreak of EI in Japan does not spread to Australia.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/horseracing/story/0,,2155187,00.html

 

[starz]

Nearing 80, Bart still thinks big

FAR from downsizing in his 80th year, the great Bart Cummings is still thinking big.

Cummings' milestone birthday will be on November 14, just as the curtain closes on the spring carnival.

Between now and then Cummings has his sights set firmly on the two races he cherishes most; the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.

And at his disposal is his biggest and best spring team in years.

Cummings' patience has been tested many times over 54 years of being a licensed trainer. His reward for mostly resisting temptation has been 11 Melbourne Cups and almost 250 group 1 wins, and it's his undeniable timing with his horses that could increase those remarkable tallies again by the end of the spring.

"It's a pretty good team. I can tell you it's better than last year. I didn't have a (Melbourne Cup) runner," Cummings said.

Top Cups prospect Prince Arthur resumes in Sydney tomorrow. Sirmione, unlucky in the Queensland Derby, will soon resume in Melbourne.

"Sirmione went via the cape and should have won the Derby up there in Brisbane but I don't think there will be much between them. I think they are fairly exciting," Cummings said.

His main Melbourne Cup hope, Empire's Choice, has come back a matured horse for his four-year-old season after he was kept on ice as a three-year-old last spring. Queensland Derby winner Empire's Choice kicks off his campaign in the Show County Quality, with Cummings rating the son of Redoute's Choice as his best chance of a 12th Melbourne Cup. "A nice horse, that one. Taken a while to mature but he's heading in the right direction," he said.

Cummings' Melbourne Cup team (nine entries) contains no other headliners and with many of the internationals set to compress the cup weights, Cummings said his emerging stayers, such as Sirmione and Sir James, probably will need to win a qualifying race to get a cup berth.

 

[starz]

Horse racing flu ban may delay Melbourne Cup

TRAINER David Hayes has called for the Melbourne Cup and $1.5 billion Spring Carnival to be postponed if the equine flu lockdown cannot be lifted quickly.

Federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran ordered the unprecedented 72-hour Australia-wide ban on all thoroughbred and harness racing early yesterday after the outbreak of the virus suspected to have entered the country via three imported Japanese thoroughbreds.
It was the first time there was no racing anywhere in Australia on a Saturday afternoon since World War II. Racing at Cheltenham was cancelled at the last minute, ruining one of the most anticipated meets of the year with the $20 million mare Miss Finland, trained by Hayes, set to resume in front of a huge crowd.

Racetracks will remain shut until Tuesday but there are predictions the ban could last at least two weeks, costing the industry tens of millions.

The South Australian TAB has predicted it will lose $6 million in betting turnover over the 72-hour racing ban.

Similar outbreaks overseas have taken up to eight weeks to control and eradicate. In 1986, an outbreak in South Africa forced that nation's racing industry to close down for five months and officials shut down racing in Japan because of the equine flu last weekend.

Hayes, whose family's empire is based at Angaston, said any extended delay to racing schedules would make it impossible for trainers to prepare the horses for the nation's biggest feature races later in the year that form Racing Victoria's Spring Carnival such as the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate, Derby and Caufield Cup.

"If you think the unthinkable and this flu goes on for a prolonged length of time, then the spring could be a wipeout because trainers wouldn't be able to give their Cup horses enough time to prepare," Hayes said yesterday.

Hayes believes if the ban was to last three weeks or longer then Racing Victoria should put its carnival back a similar time, including the Melbourne Cup, currently set down for Tuesday, November 6.

"If it happens, I'll be pushing for it; even if they have to move the Easter carnival back next year to accommodate moving the Spring Carnival dates."

Racing Victoria Ltd chairman Graham Duff said: "My understanding is that provided the containment is going to be as successful as we expect it to be . . . that will be the end of it in 72 hours."

But Mr Duff did not rule out the shutdown of Victorian racing for 30 days if neccessary. "Let's just say the 72 hours . . . had to be extended, then that could potentially impact on some of the lead-up races (to the Spring Carnival) and we would need to deal with that at that time."

Twenty-two horses across Australia now have been confirmed as testing positive for equine influenza at two Sydney locations.

Eleven of the infected horses are in lockdown at Centennial Park and the other five are at the quarantine facility at Eastern Creek.

At least six horses that have been to those facilities in recent days have travelled to stables at Nowra, Parkes and Maitland and are showing signs of the EI virus, but tests have yet to confirm their infection.

The highly infectious respiratory disease of horses can result in death among vulnerable animals, with strong horses becoming extremely sick for several weeks.

Most of the impounded horses are thoroughbred stallions with an estimated collective value of more than $500 million. Among those quarantined was top sire Encosta De Lago, who was due to be mated with Makybe Diva.

Thoroughbred Racing SA veterinary surgeon Peter Horridge compared the equine flu to the foot-and-mouth outbreak that ravaged the livestock industry in the UK and Europe in 2001.

"It could be equally as devastating to our (horse) industry as foot-and-mouth is to the livestock industries in other countries," Dr Horridge said. "This is my first time in 30 years that we have had an outbreak of any type as serious as this in Australia."

Hayes said he was confident the flu outbreak would be contained. "I know all our horses both in Melbourne and at Lindsay Park have been checked out and they are fine," he said.

"I'm hoping this might be a storm in a teacup but if it is bad then the authorities are doing the right thing."

 

[starz]

Fear the spring carnival's over

WHAT NOW?: Fiumicino, who won the AJC Derby for Darren Beadman and John Hawkes, is one of many superstars whose preparations will be disrupted by the virus.


ACE trainer John Hawkes believes the spring racing carnival is in dire straits if the racing shutdown because of equine flu extends for another fortnight.

Hawkes's Melbourne Cup plans for his big spring contender Fiumicino already are under review after the star four-year-old missed his return run at Randwick yesterday.

Fiumicino is $12 co-favourite for the Caulfield Cup and on the third line of betting for the Melbourne Cup at $15.

"I'm no different to anyone else right now. I can't call where we're headed," Hawkes said. "But for a horse on a Melbourne Cup campaign the threat is enormous.

"If it (the ban) went to next weekend then it would start to look really bad. Add another week and I reckon that's the end of most horses for the Sydney spring carnival and pretty much the Melbourne Cup horses as well.

"You can't keep horses in work indefinitely and not race them. They go off. At the moment there are too many ifs, buts and maybes. But we need to get over this within the 72 hours ban or things are looking very, very bad."

The biggest problem facing trainers preparing horses for the spring is there is nowhere to turn with a total national lockdown.

 

[- PC -]

My opinion is that racing will be shut down for 1 week and racing authorities and McGaurun to come out and say xxx horses have been isolated and racing will resume for now.

Then it will go away

 

[pro_punter]

RACING Victoria has vowed to defy the Federal Government's call to postpone the Melbourne Cup following the outbreak of equine influenza, with the state's racing industry chiefs saying the $5.1 million event will go ahead even if interstate horses are locked out.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22313534-2,00.html

 

[sethlad]

Close those borders now!!!
Federal Govt has absolutely no jurisdiction over the Carnival.

seth

 

[starz]

Raiders denied a Cup defence

JAPANESE raiders Delta Blues and Pop Rock are out of this year's Melbourne Cup as the horse flu outbreak threatens to strangle the Spring Carnival.

The powerhouse stayers were pulled out late yesterday because the outbreak of equine influenza in their own country - which has since jumped to Australia - meant they could not enter quarantine in time.

Delta Blues and Pop Rock, who ran one-two last year, are not suffering from the flu but are victims of strict clamp on all horse movements in Japan and across Australia.

Japan's quarantine centres have many infected horses.

Owner Katsumi Yoshida and trainer Katsuhiko Sumi met on Saturday night and reluctantly decided to abandon the trip with Delta Blues and Pop Rock.

They said their decision was not based on our equine influenza outbreak, rather a more significant epidemic of the virus in Japan.

The pair was due to arrive in Melbourne late next month.

TAB Sportsbet, which had offered a special promotion on all Japanese Cup raiders, doubling their price for the race for a short period, had Pop Rock the $10 Melbourne Cup favourite.

TAB Sportsbet's general manager, Craig Nugent, said the rules of "all-in" betting on major races meant punters who have backed Pop Rock and Delta Blues would not receive a refund.

Local horse Efficient will now be a pronounced favourite for the race.

 

[starz]

Cup hope returns bigger and better

Cup favourite Efficient

MELBOURNE Cup favourite Efficient has returned bigger and better than last spring, but racegoers will have to wait another week to see him.

Owner Lloyd Williams said the four-year-old would bypass Moonee Valley on Saturday and resume in the $200,000 Group 2 Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on Saturday week.

"He's come back very well," Williams said. "Physically, he's bigger and stronger now. He's 25kg heavier than last campaign."

Although Efficient heads Melbourne Cup markets, Williams said the 2040m Cox Plate on October 27 was also a very real target.

"He's my most likely Cox Plate runner. He's already qualified as a Group 1 winner (last season's Victoria Derby)," he said. "He's only raced on the StrathAyr (Moonee Valley track) once and that was for an impressive win in the AAMI Vase over the same distance as the Cox Plate last spring.

"He's also been to Moonee Valley for two (track) gallops on the StrathAyr."

Efficient's path towards the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup will go from the Memsie to the $300,000 Group 2 Dato Tan Nim Chan (1600m) -- formerly the Feehan Stakes -- at Moonee Valley on September 15. That could see Efficient clash with Cox Plate favourite Marasco.

Williams rates Marasco the one to beat in the Cox Plate and said he tried to buy the Fred Kersley-trained star last month.

"I'd love to buy him," he said. "In fact a few weeks ago Nick (Williams' son) told me he was on the market.

"I was overseas, but I got all excited, had Jim Bowler (his racing manager) go through Marasco's ratings, but then I heard the horse wasn't for sale.

"The only thing I would say about Marasco is that it would be a brave man to say you could improve a horse on Fred Kersley.

"Marasco is looking pretty good to me, like the horse to beat in the Cox Plate at this stage."

Williams is also a big fan of the Mick Price-trained Pompeii Ruler.

"He'll be the big improver from the Liston (fourth) last weekend," Williams said. "He relaxes beautifully and I'd be setting him for the Melbourne Cup if he was my horse."

Williams is considering a Cox Plate tilt with his class stayer Zipping, who will return to racing along with Adelaide and Sydney Cup winner Gallic in the $500,000 Group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on September 8
"Zipping's going to have a light spring, and English-style preparation, that could include the Cox Plate," Williams said.

"After the Makybe Diva he will have a month between runs before the Turnbull (Group 1, 2000m on October 6)."

Williams confirmed heavyweight jockey Steven Arnold would have first choice of his stable rides.

"He'll ride Efficient in all his races and will probably elect to ride Zipping in the Makybe Diva because he would be a better chance than Gallic in that race," Williams said.

 

[sethlad]

Cup hope returns bigger and better
"Zipping's going to have a light spring, and English-style preparation, that could include the Cox Plate," Williams said.

Very sensible,ran in everything except the Tour De France last Spring.Basically rules out the C Cup though which IMO is his best hope.
Doubt he could win the Cox Plate with a lap start,even if it is a weaker version

seth

 

[coast2coast]

it's going to be so disappointing if the race is diluted because of E.I.

for what it's worth (and all things being equal) i like sirmione/maldivian as my early picks for the caulfield cup and sirmione/maybe better for the melbourne cup

 

[Rough_Edges]

My man , Leica Falcon is back baby.

Was all over him for the '06 Cup. Had $100 on him @ 11 or something.

and then his gone.

Will probably watch him with intrest, doubt he will win the cup....but will definitley flutter on him on some of the more minor races.....

Shame about last year, would've went down as one of the greats IMO.

 

[Bobby Beecroft]

My man , Leica Falcon is back baby.

Was all over him for the '06 Cup. Had $100 on him @ 11 or something.

Be careful if taking feature doubles.
Trained 7kms over the border, may not get here.

 

[starz]

Finding Cup horse Godolphin's main worry

GODOLPHIN'S bid to secure its first Melbourne Cup hasn't been dampened by the equine influenza scare, but it is still seaching for the right horse.

The world's largest thoroughbred training operation is still searching for a horse good enough to contest the $5 million Cup.

Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford said Scriptwriter, considered by many as the stable's best prospect, would not be a contender.

Although Scriptwriter won a race at Goodwood and finished third in the Ebor last week, Crisford said he was not up to Cup standard.

"He's just not up to that race," Crisford said.

Crisford dismissed speculation that Godolphin would automatically discount the Melbourne Cup carnival because of the EI outbreak.

"You can't say we won't be coming just because of what's happened," Crisford said.

"It's the end of August and Cup is not until the first week of November. It's way too early to be talking along those lines."

 

[starz]

Blow to Melbourne Cup field

HORSES in New South Wales will be banned from this year's Melbourne Cup Carnival following positive tests of flu among race horses.

Most of the 700 horses trained at Randwick Racecourse are expected to show signs of equine influenza (EI) over the next few days following eight positive tests.

The track will be quarantined for at least a month after the last case is detected but authorities will not consider deliberately infecting the horses.

"People like trainer David Payne and vet Tim Roberts who have seen this before in South Africa have told us it spreads like wildfire," Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy said.

"Obviously the sooner this goes through and burns itself out at Randwick the better, but we would not deliberately infect them."

 

[Rough_Edges]

FFS - Leica Falcon ****ed for 2 years in a row.

What a waste of a ****ing good race horse.

 

[starz]

Melbourne Cup weights have been released
http://www.ozracing.net.au/cgi-bin/rsb/public/format_wgt_rating.cgi/0611FLEM.DGW?State=V

The current list of 527 nominations will be cut dramatically for the first declarations on Sept 11

 

[starz]

Leica Falcon set to cross NSW border

COROWA galloper Leica Falcon will this week become the first NSW-based thoroughbred permitted to enter Victoria to race next Saturday at the re-opening of the Flemington racecourse.

Racing Victoria Ltd chief executive Stephen Allanson said yesterday that as Leica Falcon was more than 300 kilometres from an area infected with equine influenza in NSW, his entrance into Victoria was likely to be expedited this week.

"We know everything about his medical status and it's just a matter of tracking any horse he may have been in close contact to in the past few weeks and once that information is available, which is likely to be by the middle next week, he will be the first cab off the rank to enter Victoria," Allanson said.

Leica Falcon, one of the leading chances in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups this year, will have his second run for the campaign in the group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on Saturday. After he races, he will be taken to a property near Chiltern in northern Victoria to continue his preparation for the cups. Presently, he is in a paddock one kilometre north of the Murray River.

 

[starz]

Mare must set weight record to win Cup

MISS Finland's place in the pantheon of fillies is already assured, but further greatness beckons if she can add the Melbourne Cup to her spectacular career.

Racing Victoria Limited chief handicapper Greg Carpenter yesterday paid Miss Finland an almighty compliment when he handicapped her at 53kg for both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
It places Miss Finland, a winner of the Golden Slipper, Thousand Guineas, VRC Oaks, Cadbury Guineas and Arrowfield Stakes, in rarefied territory.
Surround, the champion filly of her generation, is the only four-year-old mare to have received more weight than Miss Finland. Surround, winner of the 1976 Cox Plate, received 53.5kg for the 1977 Melbourne Cup, but she was retired after running second in the '77 Feehan Stakes.

Rose Of Kingston, winner of the VRC Oaks and AJC Derby, was allocated the same weight as Miss Finland, but she also did not run in the Cup. Light Fingers holds the weight-carrying winning record for a four-year-old. She carried eight stone four pounds, a touch over 52.5kg, in her 1965 Melbourne Cup win when she was ridden by Roy Higgins.

And Carpenter handicapped Miss Finland above another champion, Leilani, who carried 52kg to victory in the 1972 Caulfield Cup. "If she wins either race it will be a weight-carrying record by a four-year-old mare," Carpenter said at yesterday's release of the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups weights.
"I hope they take up the challenge," Carpenter said.

Hayes said that while the Caulfield Cup wasn't an option, the Melbourne Cup could come under consideration after Miss Finland's spring priority, the Cox Plate.

He said with the equine flu outbreak both here and in Japan, a trip to Tokyo for the Japan Cup had been ruled out. "We'll just keep an eye on the (Melbourne) Cup. There is a possibility that we will consider it," he said. "We'll keep her in it. She might take the path of Jeune into the Melbourne Cup."

Hayes mused whether the equine influenza outbreak, which saw Miss Finland's scheduled resumption race in Adelaide shelved and then moved to the Memsie Stakes, may have cost her 2kg in the Cup weights. However Carpenter said Miss Finland's weight had been locked in at 53kg for the Cups before her stunning first-up win in the Memsie at Caulfield on Saturday.

 

[- PC -]

I will be putting Miss F in my trifecta calculations

 

[starz]

Top weight for Yeats Down Under

Yeats has been given top weight for the Emirates Melbourne Cup at Flemington on November 6.

The dual Ascot Gold Cup winner has been allotted 59kg (approximately 9st 4lb), the same as he carried when running seventh in 'the race that stops a nation' 12 months ago.

His trainer Aidan O'Brien has nominated five horses for the race, with Coronation Cup victor Scorpion set to carry 58kg (9st 3lb), Septimus 57kg (9st), and Hitchcock and Mahler both 50kg (7st 12lb).

Luca Cumani's Purple Moon, who pulled off a huge gamble when winning the Ebor at York last month, has been given 53kg (8st 5lb).

Racing Victoria's chief handicapper Greg Carpenter said Yeats had held the same form as last year and warranted being treated at the same level.

"He was beaten with 59kg in last year's Emirates Melbourne Cup and there's no evidence Yeats is going any better than in 2006, therefore I've assessed him as the same horse and on the same weight," he said.

 

[Lockyer24]

Leica Falcon set to cross NSW border

COROWA galloper Leica Falcon will this week become the first NSW-based thoroughbred permitted to enter Victoria to race next Saturday at the re-opening of the Flemington racecourse.

Racing Victoria Ltd chief executive Stephen Allanson said yesterday that as Leica Falcon was more than 300 kilometres from an area infected with equine influenza in NSW, his entrance into Victoria was likely to be expedited this week.

"We know everything about his medical status and it's just a matter of tracking any horse he may have been in close contact to in the past few weeks and once that information is available, which is likely to be by the middle next week, he will be the first cab off the rank to enter Victoria," Allanson said.

Leica Falcon, one of the leading chances in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups this year, will have his second run for the campaign in the group 2 Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington on Saturday. After he races, he will be taken to a property near Chiltern in northern Victoria to continue his preparation for the cups. Presently, he is in a paddock one kilometre north of the Murray River.

What about now?

 

[eastaugh36]

Get on Tawqeet.

 

[Aussie Assault]

Get on Tawqeet.

Hayes was saying how impressed he was with its work lately. Going to aim at defending the Caulfield Cup with 2 starts prior.

 

[starz]

Tawqeet ready for big spring

JOCKEY Dwayne Dunn believes Melbourne Cup fancy Tawqeet has improved "three to four lengths" on last year and can easily spring an upset when he resumes in Saturday's Group Two Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m).

Dunn worked Tawqeet with stablemate Blue Monday at Flemington first thing on Tuesday - the track will stage its first meeting for the year on Saturday - and said last year's beaten Melbourne Cup favourite would be ready to pounce every time he visited the track in future.

"Most people will tell you Tawqeet won't win until he gets to 2000m and beyond, but you'll see a different horse this spring," Dunn said.

"Last spring we were always one race behind in terms of fitness, but this time around (trainer) David (Hayes) has him more forward in condition. David wants to have him at his best every time he races.