Melbourne Cup 2018: Five horses you have to know
MEET the five horses — and one wild G-string-wearing owner — we should all be cheering for in this year’s Melbourne Cup.
YUCATAN remains the short-priced favourite for Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup but these are the five horses you want to be cheering for if you like a good story.
Outside barracking for the horse you back — or the Aussie runners — these are the nags we should be hoping get up.
When the owner of a horse says — months out from the race and then repeatedly in the lead-up — that he wants to don a G-string to accept the winning trophy, it’s interesting enough. Flamboyant British billionaire Marwan Koukash’s motivations for doing so might be unclear, but his desire to do so — first put out there in August — is crystal clear. He tried to accept his Chester Cup silverware in his “barely there” in May, but security thwarted his attempt. Should jockey Corey Brown salute the post first for consecutive years running, I don’t think we can envisage two more contrasting owners’ kits accepting the trophy than Lloyd Williams and Koukash year-on-year. “When we win on Tuesday no one will stop me providing Flemington with the best celebration you have ever had,” Koukash said. “I will take my clothes off, I will keep my tie, my thong and my shoes. I know how to evade security — I am good to deliver. She (my wife) will divorce me but if I win the Melbourne Cup I will find a new wife.”
The city of Geelong has been a keystone for the Melbourne Cup in recent years for a variety of reasons. Primarily, the Geelong Cup has been the desired stepping stone into the two-mile feature for recent Cup winners Media Puzzle, Americain and Dunaden, while 2016 fourth-placegetter Qewy and 2008 narrow runner-up Bauer came through winning at Geelong also. The beauty of Runaway’s connection tying Geelong to Flemington is the fact he was foaled just up the road from the scene of his Geelong Cup success, at Rosemont Stud’s Gnarwarre property. He is set to be one of only a handful of Australian-breds to run in the Cup this year — not as rare as they were in 2015. Geelong resident Sertorius, trained by Jamie Edwards, was the lone Aus-born horse in the race in 2015. Further to Runaway’s appeal as a unique Cup runner, he is not an entire or a gelding — he is classified as a rig. A rig is defined as a male with one or both testicles dislodged or non-functioning. Awkward as that sounds, he has overcome that fate to earn himself a spot in the Cup.
There is nothing Aussies love more than seeing England shown up in a sporting contest, especially either by us or one of their neighbours. With Ireland having conquered the Cup through the likes of Vintage Crop to Rekindling last year, now Scotland is a sniff to try and beat the English to the punch in 2018. Trainer Iain Jardine had a relatively successful kick-off Down Under when Nakeeta ran fifth in the famous race last year, having won the Northern Hemisphere’s top handicap, the Ebor. That big run behind Rekindling was a hit-run one-start mission, but Jardine changed it up in ‘18 — with Nakeeta running in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup this campaign, albeit well-beaten. The ‘Brits’’ will be keen to claim Nakeeta as one of theirs, but we will apply the Andy Murray theory here — if he wins, he’s Scottish. If he gets beat, he’s yours, Britain.
There’s nothing like a great name to get behind, but better still, Who Shot Thebarman’s durability to prepare for his fourth Melbourne Cup start is a credit to horse, trainer and everyone involved. Having placed in 2014, and finished fifth in 2016, his 11th-place finish in the slowly-run edition of 2015 is his only blip in the race (he’s had nine two-mile starts, for seven top-five finishes). And coming in off a close fourth in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup, it appears the 10-year-old will be doing a little more than just making up the numbers come Tuesday. He showed as recently as April this year that the two miles remains in his wheelhouse, when getting the better of a tough duel with Zacada to win the G1 Sydney Cup. He’s raced against Winx seven times over largely unsuitable trips, but he’s shown seeing her rump quite a bit isn’t necessarily a mood flattener for all horses. Friday marked Who Shot Thebarman’s foal date 10 years on — what better birthday present to win the $7.3 million handicap just a few days later?
This bloke gets a guernsey in this column in 2018, after he was forced to carry Cup favouritism last year off the back of being the flashing light run of the Caulfield Cup. As such, expectations were probably exceeded and Marmelo — with Hugh Bowman on board — finished ninth, still banking a cheque but almost 10 lengths off the winner Rekindling. He has barely put a foot wrong since then, racing four times and being beaten by just two horses — Vazirabad and Holdthasigreen. It’s getting rarer by the year that a star jockey sticks with a Cup horse year-on-year, especially when beaten a margin, but that is what four-time Cox Plate-winning hoop Hugh Bowman is doing. No-one would begrudge Bowman a Cup win — the star Sydney hoop has made winning Victoria Derbies and Cox Plates his own, but the two famous handicaps have so far eluded him. He landed a Japan Cup last year with Cheval Grand, but can he conquer the feature on the first Tuesday in November? Given Bowman is a down-to-earth country boy, Marmelo would certainly prove a popular winner.
COMPLETE MELBOURNE CUP BARRIER DRAW
Barrier 1: Auvray
Barrier 2: Vengeur Masque
Barrier 3: Nakeeta
Barrier 4: Chestnut Coat
Barrier 5: Red Cardinal
Barrier 6: Best Solution
Barrier 7: Ventura Storm
Barrier 8: Youngstar
Barrier 9: The Cliffsofmoher
Barrier 10: Marmelo
Barrier 11: Avilius
Barrier 12: Runaway
Barrier 13: Muntahaa
Barrier 14: Sir Charles Road
Barrier 15: Finche
Barrier 16: Sound Check
Barrier 17: Magic Circle
Barrier 18: Who Shot the Barman
Barrier 19: Cross Counter
Barrier 20: A Prince of Arran
Barrier 21: Rostropovich
Barrier 22: Ace High
Barrier 23: Yucatan
Barrier 24: Zacada
This article was originally published by punters.com.au and reproduced with permission
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