Aidan O’Brien raider Hunting Horn firms for Melbourne Cup after impressive Valley win
Aidan O’Brien already boasted a formidable Melbourne Cup hand but on Saturday the master trainer unleashed another potential winner for our biggest race. And it wasn’t the only international success on the day.
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Aidan O’Brien has simultaneously strengthened an already formidable Melbourne Cup hand and vindicated Cox Plate officials with Hunting Horn’s emphatic Moonee Valley Gold Cup success.
Backed on-course from $5.50 to $4.20, the son of Camelot climbed from No.20 to 16th in the Melbourne Cup order of entry ahead of Monday’s third declarations.
And by downing Mr Quickie ($3.80) and Downdraft ($3.90), Hunting Horn proved Moonee Valley Racing Club officials were correct to demote veteran Humidor from the Cox Plate’s starting line-up of 14 runners.
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Humidor laboured into fourth placing, suggesting the dual Cox Plate placegetter would have struggled against elite weight-for-age company had he gained a start.
Racing Victoria’s Greg Carpenter will decide on Monday whether to re-handicap Hunting Horn for the November 5 Melbourne Cup.
O’Brien watched the race from Ballydoyle in Ireland.
“He was up watching it and he was very pleased with it,” O’Brien’s travelling foreman TJ Comerford said.
“Aidan likes the horse and we have had him now for a while.
“He goes everywhere with Magic Wand. At the end of the day he is just breathing down her throat but he got a result there. Today was great.
“I suppose the race suited him because they went steady. He’s always been running over a mile-and-a-quarter (2000m).
Hunting Horn!
— 7HorseRacing 🎠(@7horseracing) October 26, 2019
English jockey, Ryan Moore timed that to perfection to win the Moonee Valley Gold Cup. pic.twitter.com/0O0nbuSQyC
“All of that helps. (The race) didn’t run like a true mile-and-a-half (2400m) contest. The steady pace probably suited him better.
“It was a class ride by Ryan Moore, great ride.”
Comerford said Hunting Horn, who has form around British star Enable, had “settled in lovely.”
“I was on the phone to Aidan and I told him that this was the best he has ever behaved (pre-race). He’s normally a bit on edge.
“If you have seen him in the morning you’d see that he’s a bit on his toes but that’s just him. Nothing bothers him he doesn’t sweat. That is just his way. It was a great result.”
The success continued O’Brien’s strike rate in Australia.
“It’s great that we can have a winner because it’s hard to come here,” Comerford said.
“You like to run well, you like to win. We were lucky last year with Yucatan.
“He performed so good for us. We’ve come here before with (Cox Plate winner) Adelaide, (Melbourne Cup runner-up) Johannes Vermeer, they’ve always run well.”
Winning jockey Ryan Moore said Hunting Horn clearly relished the less formidable opposition he faced at The Valley after racing consistently at Group 1 level in Britain.
“He’s a lovely colt. He’s had very good form all the way through, he’s had some tough assignments,” he said.
“He travelled very strong. Today was a nice spot for him.”
Hunting Horn firmed from $51-$18 for the Melbourne Cup, where he could clash with stablemates Il Paradiso and Magic Wand.
INTERNATIONALS FLEX FURTHER MUSCLE
Another canny international purchase by Jamie Lovett and the crew at Australian Bloodstock could secure them a $500,000 bonus after Chief Ironside’s stirring win in the Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley.
Winless since 2018, the northern hemisphere four-year-old was purchased along with Cox Plate flop Danceteria and sent to French trainer David Menuisier, who trains in England.
Under Irish jockey Jamie Spencer Chief Ironside gobbled up Cliffs Edge and Best of Days with a storming late surge to leave Menuisier and connections “over the moon”.
“The boys, brought the horse about two and a half months ago and for you to come here in Australia, we found that we could improve the horse on his previous form and I think that is what we did,” he said.
A failure in the Toorak Handicap last start, where Chief ironside finished 13th, wasn’t a true indication of his ability according to jockey Jamie Spencer, who reunited with him having ridden the horse at his last start in England in July.
Chief Ironside nudges out Cliff's Edge to win the Crystal Mile at @TheValley. pic.twitter.com/rMnEKjePxW
— 7HorseRacing 🎠(@7horseracing) October 26, 2019
“He’s always been an on-the-pace horse in Europe so I wasn’t worried that he wouldn’t be able to get a position. It’s just that he can’t play up in the gates, which happened last time at Caulfield,” Spencer said.
“So we were just hoping to get a good beginning and hope the race goes smoothly, which it did for me. He needed every yard of the straight to get there.”
MORE NEWS:
Melbourne Cup 2019: What time is the race, tickets, dress code and tips
Cox Plate 2019: Results, where your horse finished; what the jockeys said
Melbourne Cup 2019: Order of entry for Australia’s great race
Chief Ironside will now line up in the Group 1 Cantala Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on Derby day, and the Moonee Valley win makes him eligible to win the $500,000 bonus with another victory.
Australian Bloodstock won the Melbourne Cup in 2014 with Protectionist, which they purchased from Germany.
— RUSSELL GOULD
Originally published as Aidan O’Brien raider Hunting Horn firms for Melbourne Cup after impressive Valley win