Training giants dominate with nine Melbourne Cup runners

Training giants Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher will have nine runners between them in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup as they continue to dominate the Australian racing landscape through sheer weight of numbers.

The Sydney-based Waller will have five starters running in the $8 million group 1 staying event, including race favourite Buckaroo, which drew poorly in barrier 21 in Saturday night’s draw.

When asked if there was still an opportunity for a battling trainer to win the great race, Maher said: “Bloody oath”.

“It’s a handicap, and as you know good horses come from anywhere,” he said.

“I am very fortunate to have that many in, but you could have eight in the race and still not get the winner – it’s one of those races.”

Prominent owner Ozzie Kheir owns two imported runners with each trainer – Buckaroo and Valiant King with Waller, and Interpretation and Saint George with Maher.

Kheir said he preferred to draw outside than in with Buckaroo, whose connections still had barrier No.1 on the table when their turn came to pick up the mini cup bearing their gate number.

Kheir was a part-owner in last year’s runner-up Soulcombe, who was unable to get a clear run in the straight under international hoop Joao Moreira.

“With what was left, 21 was a better option than one,” Kheir said. “I’d rather him be midfield and out than in. Hopefully, we don’t get stuck in traffic like last year with Soulcombe.”

For the first time in the race’s 163-year history, four women will ride in the race – Jamie Kah, Hollie Doyle, Rachel King and Winona Costin – as they seek to become just the second female winner behind Michelle Payne.

Kah will ride Okita Soushi from barrier 10 for Maher, who won his first Melbourne with Gold Trip in 2022, while Teo Nugent and Maher’s Interpretation will start in gate 14.

Okita Soushi won the Moonee Valley Gold Cup.Credit: Getty Images

“I really think there’s bugger all between Interpretation and Soushi,” Maher said. “I think Interpretation has a better turn a foot right, whereas Soushi is just so smooth and a proper two-miler. They’re ready to run their peak.”

Interpretation ran home from last to finish sixth in last year’s Cup and Maher said he was “clearly going better” this year.

“I have had one race in mind. I didn’t worry about the rest of the year, it was just one race into the Cup.”

Mahrajaan was ruled out of the Melbourne Cup.Credit: Getty Images

Waller had four guaranteed runners heading into the weekend – Buckaroo, Land Legend, Kovalica and Valiant King – but his fifth horse Manzoice was elevated into the race on Saturday morning after Kiwi runner Mahrajaan failed a compulsory CT scan.

Vets ruled out four horses last week after scans showed they were at “heightened risk of injury” if they took their place in the group 1 3200-metre staying test – Mahrajaan, Aidan O’Brien’s Jan Brueghel, and the Trent Busuttin and Nat Young-trained pair Muramasa and Brayden Star.

Irish master trainer Willie Mullins was quietly confident that his two runners, Vauban (barrier 11) and Absurde (barrier seven), would perform well after finishing 14th and seventh last year.

Mullins sent the horses to Australia at a later date and changed up their preparations.

Godolphin trainer James Cummings will look to emulate his famous grandfather by winning his first Cup with Zardozi.

The mare drew barrier four and was passed fit to run after a fast-finishing fifth in the group 1 Empire Rose Stakes over 1600m – a preparation used to great effect by Bart “the Cups King” Cummings, who ran many of his Cup winners on the Saturday before backing them up in the great race three days later.

“She made up good ground and stormed through the line in the style of a really, really good, in-form stayer,” Cummings said.

“She has always pulled up well, Zardozi, and you saw that 12 months ago when she backed up beautifully in the VRC Oaks after running in the Wakeful.”

The connections of Geelong Cup winner Onesmoothoperator breathed a sigh relief on Saturday morning after vets cleared their horse to run in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.

The UK gelding, which drew barrier 12, was reported to have a cut to its right hind heel bulb on Friday and had to have a follow-up examination after being re-shod.

Racing Victoria stewards announced in the lead up to Derby Day at Flemington that Onesmoothoperator had been “passed suitable to accept”.

The Brian Ellison-trained runner is one of the favourites for the Cup after his comprehensive Geelong victory.

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