Andreas Wohler keen to crack Caulfield Cup puzzle with Articus

CUP FIELD: GERMAN trainer Andreas Wohler admits to wrestling with a problem common to most Australian form students — decoding the Caulfield Cup puzzle.

WILY German trainer Andreas Wohler admits to wrestling with a problem common to most Australian form students — decoding the Caulfield Cup puzzle.

But while he’s certain ruling favourite Jameka ($3.40 TAB Fixed Odds) deserves to be heading markets before Saturday’s Cup, Wohler struggles to reconcile European and Australian form.

CAULFIELD CUP: NEWS COULD BREAK BOOKIES’ HEARTS

“It’s hard to say but I saw the races and was quite impressed by Jameka,” Wohler, trainer of 2014 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist, said. “She’s probably the filly to beat but it’s hard to compare the Australian form to the European form.”

Referring to the river of support which has seen his stable hope Articus’ price slashed to $8.50, Wohler said: “I’m really surprised because when we first planned to come over he was 50-1 and now he’s just one figure.”

Satisfied with the raider’s draw of 11 in the Cup, Wohler said: “Good enough, could have been worse. We wanted somewhere in the middle and 11 is close to the middle.

“His preparation couldn’t have been better, so just looking forward to Saturday.

“Hopefully it will be an even, fast-run race and he will be in the midfield.”

One of the most meticulous operators in racing, Wohler has spent the past week at Werribee finetuning his lightly-raced charged. And he has paid close attention to his rival imports.

Articus has been a big firmer in betting for the Caulfield Cup. Picture: Mark Stewart

“You shouldn’t underestimate Scottish, he’s a nice horse. He’s a good horse,” Wohler said. “And Exospheric, he had good form in Europe but they have to show it here as well.”

Another international on Wohler’s radar is Andre Fabre’s star Vadamos, who will attempt to gatecrash the Wink v Hartnell Cox Plate showdown on Saturday week. “Vadamos is impressively me really well but he’s running — happily enough — in the Cox Plate,” he said.

Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby will arrive at Werribee on Friday to supervise the final stages of Scottish’s preparations.

$3m CAULFIELD CUP

Caulfield, Saturday

1 PREFERMENT C Waller H Bowman (15) 57kg

2 OUR IVANHOWE L & A Freedman D Dunn (6) 56.5kg

3 EXOSPHERIC L & A Freedman D Oliver (3) 55.5kg

4 SCOTTISH C Appleby K McEvoy (7) 55kg

5 SIR ISAAC NEWTON A O’Brien C O’Donoghue (9) 55kg

6 TARZINO M Price C Newitt (4) 54.5kg

7 ALMOONQITH D & B Hayes & T Dabernig M Walker (2) 54kg

8 SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD J P Thompson B Spriggs (5) 53.5kg

9 ARTICUS A Wohler Z Purton (11) 53kg

10 TALLY J O’Shea B Avdulla (19) 53kg

11 JAMEKA C Maher N Hall (13) 52.5kg

12 REAL LOVE D Weir C Williams (10) 52.5kg

13 SET SQUARE C Maher M Dee (a) (20) 52kg

14 BIG MEMORY T McEvoy C Parnham (12) 51.5kg

15 SACRED MASTER C Waller T Berry (8) 51.5kg

16 FANATIC G Sanders D Yendall (16) 50.5kg

17 PEMBERLEY C Maher B Allen (a) (17) 50.5kg

18 GO DREAMING G Kluske Ms K Mallyon (1) 50.5kg

19e DE LITTLE ENGINE D O’Brien B E Thompson (a) (14) 50.5kg

20e VENGEUR MASQUE M Moroney P Moloney (18) 50.5kg

BETTING: TAB FIXED ODDS