Sea King weight penalty confirmed for Melbourne Cup

UK raider Sea King has moved up the Melbourne Cup order of entry after receiving a penalty for his Bendigo Cup win.

UK raider Sea King has moved to 17th in the Melbourne Cup order of entry with a 0.5kg penalty for a dominant Bendigo Cup triumph on Wednesday.

The Harry Eustace-trained stayer went from 50kg originally to 50.5kg in the revised order.

There are 29 horses left in contention for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday at Flemington, with the top 24 assured a start in the race that stops a nation.

Racing Victoria chief handicapper David Hegan announced the weight penalty on Thursday.

“Sea King was a dominant winner of the Bendigo Cup yesterday with (jockey) Declan Bates using the horse’s sustained stamina to steal a march on his rivals and never be challenged,” Hegan said.

“The decisive nature of his victory warrants a penalty and a key line of relativity in the Melbourne Cup is Onesmoothoperator who sits on 51kg after receiving a 1kg penalty following his Geelong Cup win last week.

“The two horses met recently in the Ebor Handicap in the UK where they crossed the line together.

“Sea King carried 1kg less than Onesmoothoperator that day but now moves to within 0.5kg of him.

“Onesmoothoperator was effectively given a 2.5kg increase on his overseas mark for the Geelong Cup win so Sea King now moves 3kg up on his previous best form.”

British jockey Hollie Doyle has been locked in to ride Sea King on Tuesday.

Final acceptances for the Melbourne Cup will be taken at 4.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday.

Originally published as Sea King weight penalty confirmed for Melbourne Cup