No spring imports for Lloyd and Nick Williams this year as they hope to boost Melbourne Cup chances with Serpentine at Flemington
Lloyd and Nick Williams won’t be travelling horses from Europe this spring and will rely only on Australian-based stayers, which includes Flemington runner Serpentine.
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Melbourne Cup-winning owner Nick Williams has aborted plans to import any overseas spring raiders this year.
Williams, who has shared in three of father Lloyd’s record seven Cup wins, has successfully boosted their Cup hands the past decade with European stayers on either one-way or return tickets.
St Vincents Garden, trained by dual Cup winner Joseph O’Brien, is nominated for the Cup this year but the passionate owner Williams ruled out a trip to Melbourne.
“We’re not bringing anything out,” Williams said.
“We’ve pulled up stumps on that idea … we’ll just worry about what we’ve got here.”
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O’Brien won the Cup with Williams family-owned Twilight Payment (2020) and Rekindling (2017).
Williams will instead rely on former imports Serpentine and Point Nepean, both racing at Flemington on Saturday as $5.50 and $81 chances respectively with TAB in a 2500m Quality Handicap, to get the famous navy blue and white family colours to the first Tuesday in November.
Serpentine finished 20th in the Cup last year but a successful winter campaign has renewed confidence in the 2020 Epsom Derby winner.
Point Nepean was withdrawn on Cup eve last year due to elevated blood results.
The Williams family has had at least one runner in the Cup the past 11 years.
Past Cup winners Almandin (2016), Efficient (2007), What A Nuisance (1985), Gurner’s Lane (1982) and Just A Dash (1981).
“We don’t need to have runners for the sake of having runners,” Williams said.
“You got to have the right horse at the right time, doing the right things, that’s the way racing goes.
“It’s not the end of the world.”
Williams elected not to go into why their international stocks were depleted this year, but said the strict vetting protocols “doesn’t help”.
Serpentine, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, will aim to boost Cup claims on Saturday at Flemington.
The seven-year-old, who has thrived since being gelded, placed second in a Listed 2400m race first-up at Randwick a fortnight ago.
Second-up last campaign the bold frontrunner was nabbed on the line in the Group 3 Premier’s Cup in Brisbane.
“He’s a wonderful, very magical staying horse, he’s certainly one of them (Cup contenders),” Waterhouse said.
“He’ll go close to winning, he’s very fit, you only got to see his first-up start, they don’t do that in Australia and Ben Melham rode him and he ran second, it was a very good run. He’ll really give it a shake.”
Waterhouse received Serpentine to train earlier in the year after Williams scaled back racing operations following his sale of Macedon Lodge.
Waterhouse has enjoyed the association with Lloyd Williams, “a man who knows all about winning the Cup”.
“He sends me riding instructions all the time, which I enjoy, I like his riding instructions,” Waterhouse said.
Originally published as No spring imports for Lloyd and Nick Williams this year as they hope to boost Melbourne Cup chances with Serpentine at Flemington
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