Cup import Heartbreak City secures services of Joao Moreira as plunge keeps coming

THE boom on Heartbreak City has increased after champion jockey Joao Moreira was booked to ride the Irish raider in the Melbourne Cup.

Heartbreak City salutes in The Ebor Handicap at York racecourse on August 20.

THE boom on Heartbreak City has increased after champion jockey Joao Moreira was booked to ride the Irish raider in the Melbourne Cup.

Already backed from $151 to $15 with TAB, Heartbreak City is one of the most intriguing runners in this year’s Cup — and Moreira’s appointment has done nothing to douse excitement around the import.

TAB has reported significant wagers for Heartbreak City at $151, $81 at $35 as support for the gelding lifts him onto the fifth line of betting.

Trained by Tony Martin, an Irishman renowned for staging massive plunges, Heartbreak City demolished his rivals in the Ebor Handicap at York last month to earn a trip to Australia.

Now part-owned by Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock, Heartbreak City has mixed hurdling with flat racing and has a formline similar to Dermot Weld’s 1993 Cup winner Vintage Crop.

ATB has twice come close to Cup victory with Jakkalberry (third in 2012) and Dandino (fifth in 2013).

Hong Kong’s premier rider, Moreira rode The United States in last year’s Cup, finishing 14th behind Prince Of Penzance.

Heartbreak City is due to arrive in Australia on Saturday with fellow Cup contenders Big Orange, Bondi Beach, Beautiful Romance and Secret Number,

Japan’s Curren Mirotic is due on Monday.

All 15 of the first wave of internationals worked at Werribee, with the four Caulfield Cup entrants — Scottish, Sir Isaac Newton, Articus and Exospheric — given light duties.

Wicklow Brave was the busiest, completing a leisurely lap of the course proper before doing three laps of interval work on the poly track.