Swell of support for Bondi Beach to give Aidan O’Brien his first Melbourne Cup success

HANDICAPPER Greg Carpenter believes Bondi Beach could be the big improver in next week’s $6.2m Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

HANDICAPPER Greg Carpenter has warned the form Bondi Beach brings to next week’s Melbourne Cup is most likely better than it looks on paper and he can be the big improver on Tuesday.

Bondi Beach flexed his Melbourne Cup credentials in front of part-owner Lloyd Williams at Werribee on Friday as punters warm to the idea of his trainer Aidan O’Brien winning the race for the first time.

WEEKEND BEST BETS

MELBOURNE CUP: EARLY FORM GUIDE

NATHAN’S RACEBOOK: DERBY DAY TIPS

Bondi Beach finished 16th last year when he contested the race as a European three-year-old.

Punters are expecting a vastly improved showing and he firmed to $11 with UBET on Friday.

Williams said he had “matured a bit from last year” even though his international rating was not as high as it was 12 months ago.

Carpenter noted there were legitimate reasons for that and he believed Williams and O’Brien had plotted this Cup path meticulously for the past year in a bid to get him into the race with a winning handicap.

Bondi Beach has firmed in betting as he prepares for his second Melbourne Cup.

“This year he won his first two races in pretty soft company well and then in my view had obvious reasons why he wasn’t able to win at his last two,” Carpenter said.

“In one he was finishing better than anything in the race when third and then at his last start was held up in the straight and when he got out, finished the race off.

“He’s run four times this year for two wins and two thirds with excuses.

“He’s obviously had a preparation this year that has only been targeted at this race. He’s a horse that is not garnering as much attention as he probably deserves.

“He was only 16th as a three-year-old last year and this year he hasn’t run in the major races and the obvious reason is that the whole year has been about getting here for the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup last year is the only blemish on his form book and it was a messy race last year.”

Nick and Lloyd Williams were trackside to watch Bondi Beach gallop at Werribee on Friday. Picture: Ian Currie

O’Brien is the leading trainer in the world and won the 2014 Cox Plate with Adelaide and was third with Mahler in the 2007 Melbourne Cup.

Williams said there was an air of confidence coming from O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stables about Bondi Beach.

“Aidan seems to be pretty happy with him and the vibe with him (in quarantine) is they are happy with him,” he said.

Williams will also have the locally trained Almandin, Assign and Gallante representing his family in the big race.

“I’m not splitting them. I just hope they run well,” he said.

Originally published as Swell of support for Bondi Beach to give Aidan O’Brien his first Melbourne Cup success