With the Melbourne Cup field down to 28, another horse awaits clearance to run

Geelong Cup winner Onesmoothoperator faces a nervous wait to be cleared for Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup as Racing Victoria vets continue to take a conservative approach to the gruelling staying race.

Onesmoothoperator was reported to have a cut to its right hind heel bulb on Friday and will need to undergo another test on Saturday after being re-shod.

Geelong Cup winner Onesmoothoperator.Credit: Getty Images

It follows news on Thursday that vets had detected a change in the gait of Ciaron Maher’s runner Interpretation. The seven-year-old gelding, which ran second in the Geelong Cup behind Onesmoothoperator, was re-examined on Friday afternoon and cleared to run in the Melbourne Cup.

Racing Victoria announced that 16 horses had cleared their first physical examination, with another 12 being tested on Friday. A second mandatory pre-race test for all runners is scheduled for Monday.

Connections of Mission Of Love have decided not to run the 200-1 shot on Tuesday, meaning Ciaron Maher’s Saint George will be elevated into the race.

Final acceptances must be made by 4.30pm on Saturday, with the Cup field to be announced at 6pm. The barrier draw will be held shortly after that.

The Trent Busuttin and Nat Young-trained Muramasa has failed a Melbourne Cup vet test.Credit: Getty Images

Cranbourne trainers Trent Busuttin and Nat Young said on Thursday they were “perplexed” by the Racing Victoria testing protocols that ruled two of their stayers out of the Melbourne Cup.

Racing Victoria announced on Wednesday that CT scans showed Muramasa and Brayden Star were at “heightened risk of injury” if they ran next at Flemington next Tuesday and were therefore “unsuitable to compete”.

It followed the shock scratching of highly rated import Jan Brueghel on Monday night, as the number of available horses for the Cup was whittled down to 28.

Muramasa and Brayden Star were sent to the University of Melbourne Equine Centre in Werribee on Monday for compulsory CT scans of their distal limbs.

“Reports received from an expert panel of internationally renowned equine surgeons and diagnostic imaging specialists, who reviewed Brayden Star and Muramasa’s CT scan results, indicate that both horses are currently at heightened risk of injury,” a Racing Victoria statement said.

Jockey Daniel Moor had been booked to ride Muramasa in the Cup, while Brayden Star was outside the top 24 in the order of entry and was not guaranteed a start.

“Having been advised we’re out of the running for the [Melbourne] Cup because ‘there may be a shadow that could possibly develop into a stress fracture in the future’ is perplexing,” the Busuttin-Young stable said in a statement.

The stable said Brayden Star had “never been so outwardly happy, healthy and in great form”. The horse will now be sent for a spell.

Last year’s VRC Oaks winner Zardozi will run on Derby Day as her final lead-up race before the Melbourne Cup.Credit: Getty Images

Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien hit out at Racing Victoria stewards over their decision not to allow his stayer Jan Brueghel to run in this year’s Cup after it had passed initial testing in the UK and been sent out to Australia.

“There comes a point when it becomes ridiculous, the horsemen and women have been taken out of the picture,” the trainer said in comments reported by Racing Post.

“In this part of the world, it’s horsemen who decide. There are other parts of the world where we have had a horse, where the horse trots in front of a phone. The phone videos the trot and the phone tells you whether he is sound or not.”

Racing Victoria stewards said 16 Cup contenders were inspected on Thursday and “passed suitable on their first pre-race physical examination”.

But Ciaron Maher’s runner Interpretation will be reassessed on Friday.

“The Ciaron Maher-trained Interpretation was inspected today and not passed suitable owing to a change in the horse’s gait,” stewards said.

Cummings’ nod to grandfather and Cups king Bart

Andrew Wu

Racing authorities will give special dispensation to clear stayer Zardozi for the Melbourne Cup, as trainer James Cummings tries to pull off an age-old strategy integral to his famous grandfather’s success in the great race.

After discussions between the Cummings stable, Racing Victoria and the VRC, stewards will allow Zardozi to undergo a vet test after she runs in the Empire Rose Stakes, scheduled to start at 5pm, 30 minutes after final acceptances close. Under the conditions of the Melbourne Cup, any horse that runs on Derby Day has to be vetted and cleared to run by Racing Victoria vets.

If she is cleared, the final field of 24 will be announced at 5.50pm on Saturday. If she fails the test, the next horse in the order of entry, currently $101 chance Trust In You, will be elevated into the field. Racing Victoria’s EGM of racing Leigh Jordon said the conditions of the race allow for this to happen.

While it is not uncommon for Melbourne Cup horses to run on Derby Day, the Zardozi situation is unusual in that they generally competed in the Archer Stakes, which has been run earlier in the meeting.

Cummings is following a preparation used to great effect by his grandfather Bart “the Cups King” Cummings, who ran many of his Cup winners on the Saturday in the Mackinnon Stakes (now the Champion Stakes) or the Archer Stakes before backing them up in the great race three days later. Such a path is now rarely used.

With neither race remaining on the Derby Day card, James Cummings has no option other than to run Zardozi in the Empire Rose Stakes over 1600 metres, half the Melbourne Cup distance of 3200m. If not for Zardozi being a mare, there would not have been a suitable race for Cummings to choose.

James Cummings said his grandfather’s methods played a part in mapping Zardozi’s run to the famous two-mile race.

“I worked for him, worked alongside him, that can’t help but have an impact on the way you view training or a horse’s preparations in the longer term,” Cummings said. “We’re up against it, there’s no doubt about that. Our little mare has to rise to the occasion and has to find a way.”

Cummings said it was important for trainers of locally bred horses not to copy the formula used for imported stayers from Europe.

“If we’re a chance to beat them, I think we need to beat them at our game, not theirs,” Cummings said. “While they’re capable of going into the races with many weeks off, some horses have won a Melbourne Cup with months off, our horses are not the same.”

Zardozi has had success on the quick back-up, winning last year’s VRC Oaks five days after she claimed the Wakeful Stakes.

Cummings is not expecting Zardozi to win over the mile but thinks the run will help the four-year-old settle on Tuesday after racing keenly at times when fourth in the Caulfield Cup.

Holding all the aces for the Derby

More than 10 months after Nick Ryan sent great mate Damien Oliver out on a last-ride high, the Flemington trainer is looking to tick off his own memorable milestone.

Trainer Nick Ryan is hoping Red Aces can land his first group 1.Credit: Eddie Jim

Ryan is hoping his three-year-old VRC Derby colt Red Aces, a horse he bought at the yearling sales with his stepfather Jeff Gordon, can deliver him his first group 1 victory.

“I have been chasing it (first group 1) for a while,” he said at his Flemington stables on Thursday. “It would be pretty special to do it on Derby Day on our home deck.

“It is something that has eluded me my whole life, through being a jockey and a trainer, I have come awfully close, but we are knocking on the door.”

After Red Aces won lead-up race The Vase (2040m) at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate day, Ryan said the colt had provided him with one of his career highlights.

But the former jockey said it was hard to top December 16 last year when the now-retired Oliver saluted on his horse Munhamek in Perth in what was the champion jockey’s last Australian race ride.

Ryan believes Red Ace’s biggest dangers in Saturday’s Derby are Sydney pair El Castello, trained by Anthony Cummings, and John O’Shea’s King Of Thunder.

Race 7: $2m Group 1 VRC Derby (2500m), 4.20pm

The favourite: El Castello ticks all boxes bar one – he has drawn barrier 18 of 18, which is so wide it practically puts him in the Maribyrnong River to start the race. Other than that, he is absolutely the horse to beat. He kicked off this campaign with a win in a Warwick Farm maiden over 1400m and since then has won another three straight, holding off all comers in the group 1 Spring Champion Stakes over 2000m at Randwick last start. If he can get across to the front without using too many petrol tickets at the start of the race, he can win.

The threats: There is a sense of timing about King Of Thunder, who was the run of the race when finishing a nose third in last week’s Moonee Valley Vase behind Red Aces. Trainer John O’Shea has a skill of getting them right for Cup Week, and can be lethal when he legs super hoop James McDonald on board. Red Aces is a talented stayer for Nick Ryan, who was strong to the line winning the Vase, while there is little between Politely Dunn, China Sea, Keeneland and Goldrush Guru,

The outsiders: In one of the more open Derby events in recent memory, strong cases can also be made for the Matt Cumani-trained Kingofwallstreet, who beat China Sea and Keeneland home in the group 3 Norman Robinson (2000m) last start, while Ciaron Maher’s Saint Emilion was a strong winner of the Geelong Classic (2200m).

Tim Habel

1st El Castello (No.1), 2nd Red Aces 2 (No.2), 3rd Goldrush Guru (No.4)

Habel says: El Castello is a class act and trainer Anthony Cummings has already prepared two Derby winners including Fiveandahalfstar (2012) which won on the same seven-day back-up this colt will attempt.

Danny Russell

1st King Of Thunder (No.8), 2nd El Castello (No.1), 3rd Politely Dun (No.7), 4th: Red Aces (No.2)

Russell says: A tough race in which a case can be made for half the field, I am settling on up-and-comer King Of Thunder, who put the writing on the wall with a strong third in the Moonee Valley Vase.

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