Gold Coast mates chase Melbourne Cup dream as part-owners of French horse Tiberian

SHAUN Frost came within centimetres of winning the Melbourne Cup with Heartbreak City last year and he’s ready for another crack on Tuesday week.

SHAUN Frost came within centimetres of winning the Melbourne Cup with Heartbreak City last year in an emotionally charged race at Flemington.

Twelve months later Frost is set to try again, this time as a part-owner of Melbourne Cup-bound French horse ­Tiberian.

The Bundall-based financial planner is taking good friend Malcolm Lynch along for the ride as the Gold Coast duo chase one of racing’s biggest prizes on November 7.

Frost, 50, said the plan was to always bring Heartbreak City back in 2017 but the gelding never raced again after last year’s Cup. He was euthanised after breaking a leg in a track gallop in May.

French stayer Tiberian (left), ridden by Hugh Bowman, works with fellow international raider Garcia, ridden by Kevin Gately, at Werribee in the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup. Photo: Pat Scala, Getty Images.

“He was coming back to have another crack at it and would have been a nice chance but by all reports ­Tiberian is a better horse than Heartbreak City so that has me a bit excited,” Frost said.

“We were in the mounting yard at the Melbourne Cup last year and we honestly thought when he went past us that he had it.

“We were yelling and screaming. It was so exhausting and then to get pipped by the bob of a head was unbelievable.

“Coming down the straight we thought we were going to win the Melbourne Cup.

“It wasn’t a bad effort but when you get that close you would rather come second by a few lengths rather than missing by half a head.”

Getting to one Melbourne Cup as an owner is a feat but this will be Frost’s fourth.

He has previously had Tac De Boistron (2012, 23rd), Seismos (2014, ninth) and Heartbreak City run in the race.

“Hopefully we can go one better this year. It’s a real buzz to be involved,” Frost said.

Frost and Lynch bought a share of about 5 per cent in Tiberian with a Melbourne-based friend this year through Darren Dance’s syndication business, Australian Thor­ough­bred Bloodstock.

Heartbreak City has his head in front of eventual winner Almandin during their gripping battle in the 2016 Melbourne Cup. Photo: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Lynch, 57, has been involved in horse ownership for the past 15 years but Tiberian, rated a $17 chance in the Cup, is his only runner now.

And he is excited by the prospects of the six-year-old, who has won six races in France and goes into the Cup without an Australian start.

“Getting to the race is a big achievement,” said Lynch, who runs a business that sells health products.

“It’s all pretty exciting building up to the Cup.

“Seeing it in the betting markets and reading about it, not many people get to be part of the Melbourne Cup. To win it would be a phenomenal feeling.”

Frost and Lynch are hoping to become the third Gold Coast connections to win the Cup in the past four years.

Gold Coast Suns communications manager Stephen Wilson was a part-owner of Prince Of Penzance (2015) while the Henderson family part-owned Fiorente (2013).