Melbourne Cup 2008 Blog

About Bart Cummings and Mike Moroney

Michael Manley writing in the Melbourne Herald Sun onOctober 31, 2008 wrote: 

TRAINER Bart Cummings hopes to double his Melbourne Cup assault from one to two runners by winning tomorrow's Saab Quality (2500m).

Viewed is guaranteed a Cup start, but Cummings says either Moatize or Book Of Kells can win the Saab and qualify as well.

He is keener on the prospects of Moatize.

"He's a dour type. He's only had 11 runs and has been around the placings," said Cummings, who is pursuing a 12th Melbourne Cup win.

"He has a good turn of foot and the last 200m of his races are always his best. The indications are he will run out a strong 3200m if he gets in."

Cummings said he liked Moatize as a horse.

"The Saab's the right race for him to get in. He has a great constitution, he never stops eating," he said.

Moatize finished second behind Bauer in the Geelong Cup at his last start.

Cummings said the rain would suit his other runner trying to qualify for the Melbourne Cup, Book Of Kells.

TAB Sportsbet has Moatize a $4 third favourite in the Saab Quality, while Book Of Kells is $26.

Viewed will run later in the afternoon in the Mackinnon Stakes, following the traditional Cummings Melbourne Cup formula of running on Derby Day.

The only one of his 11 Melbourne Cup winners not to run on Derby Day was Saintly in 1996.

Flemington trainer Mike Moroney is trying to do something he has done four times -- win his way into the Melbourne Cup via the Saab Quality.

Tomorrow he is trying to get imported stallion Glistening into the race.

He has placed blinkers on Glistening in an attempt to fire him up after a disappointing effort in the Geelong Cup.

"When he won at Flemington three starts ago, he went forward, and hopefully with the blinkers on it will sharpen him up," Moroney said.

In 2000 Moroney's Melbourne Cup winner Brew scraped into the field by winning the Saab Quality.

Three other times he has managed to get runners into the Melbourne Cup via the Saab.

In 2001 Maythehorsebewithu won the Saab before finishing fifth in the Melbourne Cup.

In 2004 Catchmeifyoucan finished second in the Saab, which then earned an automatic start in the Melbourne Cup - a race in which he finished eighth.

Septimus and friends

Tony Bourke writing in "The Age' on October 24th

AIDAN O'Brien, the Irish maestro of horse racing, yesterday outlined the game plan for his three-horse team in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on November 4.

Speaking by phone to TVN's Bruce Clark from Santa Anita in California, where he is preparing runners for the Breeders' Cup meeting tomorrow and Sunday, Melbourne time, O'Brien said his horses would ensure the Cup was truly run.

"All three horses get the trip and we won't be afraid to let them gallop," he said, adding that the stable had learned from two previous attempts on the Melbourne Cup.

He said the pace tended to go out of the race after the horses left the straight, while his horses were better suited if the pace was "consistent and strong throughout the whole race. We hope to make it a true test".

On the merits of his three runners this year, O'Brien said he was not too worried about Septimus having to carry topweight of 58.5 kilograms.

"Yes, he obviously has a big weight, but he's a good horse," he said.

O'Brien said Septimus had been brought back to racing later this preparation to have him in top form for the Irish St Leger, which he won last month, "with one eye on the Melbourne Cup".

He was also enthusiastic about Honolulu, last-start winner of the Doncaster Cup on September 12. "We stepped him up in distance and he won very easily," O'Brien said. "We think the Melbourne Cup will suit him because he's a strong galloper on fast tracks."

He said the four-year-old Alessandro Volta also liked fast tracks and rated him a better prospect than stablemate Mahler, who, at the same age, finished third in the Cup last year.

O'Brien did not come to Melbourne when Yeats ran in the 2006 Melbourne Cup, finishing seventh behind Delta Blues. His first visit was last year and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

This year he is bringing his wife and children because they will "never really understand the Melbourne Cup until they come and see it".

All the Good...is good

ADRIAN DUNN...writing in the Melbourne herald Sun on October 23, 2008

CAULFIELD Cup winner All The Good returned to the track yesterday as he builds towards the Melbourne Cup.

But his Godolphin stable is mindful of the lurking presence of Septimus.

Godolphin travelling foreman Tommy Strang said he felt All The Good was too close to Septimus at the weights even before he was penalised 2kg for winning the Caulfield Cup.

All The Good will carry 55kg in the Melbourne Cup, 3.5kg less than star Irish stayer Septimus.

"If you go basically on European form, Septimus is above all the other horses, but the Melbourne Cup seems to bring them all together," Strang said.

"Our horse is in form. He goes there with a fighting chance."

Strang said he was unable to calculate what weight All The Good would receive from Septimus in Europe.

"He would not run against Septimus. All The Good has gone from a handicap to a Group 1. Septimus runs in Group races all the time," Strang said.

Francesca Cumani, daughter of English-based trainer Luca, who prepares Mad Rush and Bauer, agreed. She said the stable had enormous respect for Septimus.

"Septimus is obviously a Group 1 horse, whereas our horse (Mad Rush) had only one run in a Group 2 race in France before he ran in the Caulfield Cup," Cumani said.

"At level weights you would be very worried about taking on Septimus, but the Melbourne Cup is different and our horse is always improving. I don't think we have got to the bottom of him yet."

Strang said All The Good had performed above his European form, and he had acclimatised well.

"Actually, he's thrived since he's been here, especially the last 10 days. We were hoping rather than confident," he said.

"We were the underdogs, so there was less pressure than being hot favourite."

Strang said All The Good had been a little stiff on Sunday morning but was back to his best.

He said the six-year-old would have one more fast gallop before the Cup.

Mad Rush has recovered well from his luckless fourth in the Caulfield Cup.

"He's feeling fresh and happy. It's all good," Cumani said.

"He's a light-framed horse and doesn't need that much work. We won't need to do much with him between now and the Cup."

Septimus may miss the Cup

By Ray Thomas

September 19, 2008 12:00am

SEPTIMUS, the ruling Melbourne Cup favourite, is still not certain to make the trip down under, Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien has revealed.

O'Brien said Septimus could miss the Melbourne Cup and instead contest Europe's most prestigious weight-for-age race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp next month.

Septimus is set to enter quarantine together with stablemates and fellow Melbourne Cup contenders Alessandro Volta and Honolulu after his stabling facilities at Ballydoyle were approved by Australian authorities.

However, O'Brien said Septimus could still be switched to the Arc if suitable track conditions prevail at Longchamp.

"Septimus, Alessandro Volta and Honolulu are going into quarantine to go to Australia but there's a chance that we'd take Septimus out of quarantine if the Arc was going to come up on the soft or slow side," O'Brien told Racing Post.

"We're looking at Great Leighs with Duke Of Marmalade, but it's possible he could miss that race and go straight to the Arc if he was going to get nice ground.

"The plan is for Soldier Of Fortune to go straight to the Arc and Yeats is going to the Cadran."

O'Brien and his fellow Irish trainer Dermot Weld were given the green light to launch their bids for the Melbourne Cup after the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service examined and cleared both Ballydoyle and Weld's complex on the Curragh earlier this week.

The inspections were deemed necessary after the Federal Government tightened measures for overseas runners in the wake of Australia's first outbreak of equine influenza last year.

Septimus was an easy winner of the Group One Irish St Leger last weekend, winning by 13 lengths, yet controversially still managed to avoid getting a penalty for the Melbourne Cup.

O'Brien's outstanding stayer has been given 58.5kg for the Melbourne Cup and is the $6.50 favourite with TAB Fixed Odds for the $5.5 million race at Flemington on November 4.

Septimus's stablemate Yeats, who ran seventh in the Melbourne Cup two years ago, is topweight with 59kg but is considered a most unlikely runner.

Weld, who has won the Melbourne Cup twice with Media Puzzle (2002) and Vintage Crop (1993), is planning to send the mare Profound Beauty for Australia's most famous race.

Moatise and Bart Cummings

From RacingandSports.com.au

Wednesday, 17 September 2008: Octogenarian Bart Cummings still loves a challenge and he certainly has one on his hands with talented stayer Moatize.

Photo by Racing and Sports

Cummings is aiming to get the four-year-old into this year's Melbourne Cup – just seven weeks away – despite breaking through for a maiden win last start at Sale.

Moatize is a $41 chance for the Melbourne Cup but will virtually have to win his next couple of starts just make the line-up.

The 1422m maiden at Sale was the first step and he takes another at Sandown today in an RB89 rated handicap over 1800m.

He needs to further lift his rating to get into a race like the Winning Edge Stakes, then win that to earn an exemption from the ballot on the Caulfield Cup.

Moatize, a son of Danehill Dancer, had six starts in the one campaign as a three-year-old and placed five times, including finishing third in the Queensland Derby before a spell.

Tuesday Joy, Gai Waterhouse and John Singleton

In Melbourne's Herald Sun on the 15th of September Matt Stewart wrote...

MILLIONAIRE owner John Singleton predicts a blue with trainer Gai Waterhouse over Tuesday Joy's Cups agenda.

Singleton is adamant he must forgo the Caulfield Cup with Tuesday Joy to pull off his dream of winning the Melbourne Cup.

"Singo" predicts Waterhouse might have other ideas.

"Gai and I will probably have another famous disagreement about the Caulfield Cup, but she (Tuesday Joy) won't go to the Caulfield Cup," Singleton said yesterday.

Singleton said the weight penalty Tuesday Joy, or any horse, would attract in winning the Caulfield Cup would make winning on the first Tuesday in November impossible.

He said Tuesday Joy had already been over-handicapped to win both Cups - she has 54.5kg - pointing out the mare's Cups burden was 1kg less than legendary Makybe Diva carried to win the second of three Melbourne Cups in 2004.

"They haven't missed her. You'd reckon she'd have won the (AJC) Derby and Oaks rather than running third," he said.

Singleton predicted most of the best horses would bypass the Caulfield Cup if their trainers were serious about winning the Melbourne Cup.

Weekend Hussler and Pompeii Ruler are heading towards both races.

Tuesday Joy will run in the 2000m Turnbull Stakes at Flemington on October 4 before heading to the Melbourne Cup through the Cox Plate.

Long term, Singleton is obsessed with winning next year's 2400m Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the race in which his globe-trotting champion Strawberry Road finished fifth in 1984.

Bauer & Mad Rush - from the horse's mouth (almost)

Francesca Cumani is the very attractive and talented daughter of English horse trainer Luca Cumani. She is also the head strapper for the stable. Luca was the trainer of 2007 2nd place getter Purple Moon. She wrote a wonderful article in the days following the 2007 Cup telling of how the Cumani camp felt during and after the race it was a wonderful article. 

I recently noted this article in WAToday.com.au on September 15th...

OUR last two attempted raids on the Melbourne spring carnival have taught me a great deal. I now know that you Aussies don't actually cook shrimp on the barbie, that Vegemite is addictive and that Melbourne in the spring is not much warmer than England in the autumn. I also learnt that your cherished Melbourne Cup is not all that easy to take away from you.

However, I also know that we came pretty close last year and that we have the right ammunition to have another attempt this year. You are probably wondering why Purple Moon, aka George, is not returning to try to turn the tables on Efficient. After a well-earned long spell over the winter he started galloping in May, but a minor injury has meant that he missed most of our summer and will not be ready to run until October. As a horse who loves fast ground we might be forced to wait until the carnival in Dubai where he would be very unlucky to find soft ground.

His performance leaves a lot to live up to for our horses this year but there is no reason why they could not perform just as well, if not better. I will start with Bauer, a five-year-old grey horse by Halling. Although he is officially qualified for the Melbourne Cup he has been given a low weight of 51 kilograms so to try to ensure a start he will be aimed at the Geelong Cup first.

He is owned in partnership by his breeder Spencer Chapman and by Terry Henderson and Simon O'Donnell of OTI Racing, which bought 50% of him last November. He was unlucky to finish second to his stablemate, Sanbuch, in a competitive handicap at Goodwood in August and then was badly hampered in the rescheduled Ebor at Newbury where he finished seventh on ground that was against him. He is only small but has a huge heart and tends to do his best racing later on in the year.

Mad Rush, on the other hand, is doubly qualified after winning a very valuable handicap at Haydock in July and finishing a close second in a group 2 in France at the end of August. In eight career starts over distances from 2000 to 3000 metres he has never finished out of the first three and I think we are yet to see the best of him. The English bookies have him at 12-1 to lift the Cup while in Australia he is at $27. He will follow the same path as "George" and line up in the Caulfield Cup ahead of the Melbourne Cup. Perhaps the most interesting thing about him is that he will be running with the same weight — 53.5 — as his predecessor yet he is four pounds higher in the English ratings than Purple Moon was this time last year.

Quarantine starts next week, and no doubt I will be the cleanest person in England after the multitude of daily showers I will have to take. In fact, the restrictions are so tight that they are enough to put off most foreign trainers (that wouldn't be the intention would it?).

After Septimus' St Leger romp on the weekend, we all await to see what his trainer, Aidan O'Brien, will decide to do. Septimus is, of course, his leading stayer and will be a force to contend with at Flemington if he makes the trip.

With just under two months to go, the Melbourne Cup picture is bound to transform and develop in ways that would make even the best artists look like amateurs. We will see if we can add a colourful brushstroke or two.

Setimus - About the quarantine eequiremets

Adrian Dunn writing in the Herald Sun on 15th of September said....

RACING Victoria Ltd expects the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service to give quarantine approval to Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien early this week.

The Ballydoyle complex that houses the O'Brien horses has already received a favourable verbal report from an Australian Quarantine Inspection Service official.

RVL chief veterinary steward Paul O'Callaghan accompanied the AQIS official to Ballydoyle and Dermot Weld's stables.

Weld is considering bringing Profound Beauty out for the Melbourne Cup.

The report from the official has to be signed off by the AQIS head office in Canberra.

Even allowing for delays, RVL should be able to convey approval to O'Brien by the middle of the week at the latest.

Such a timeline would allow O'Brien to put the horses he plans to bring into quarantine at Ballydoyle on September 24-25.

International horses planning a Melbourne Cup mission will arrive at the Sandown quarantine centre on Caulfield Guineas day (October 11).

It will allow them to serve the newly imposed three-week quarantine period, following the fallout from the bungle at the Eastern Creek quarantine station last year and the subsequent equine influenza breakout.

The Luca Cumani-trained horses Mad Rush and Bauer and Godolphin's All The Good are already in quarantine in Newmarket, England.

They will arrive in Melbourne on September 27, enabling them to clear quarantine on Caulfield Cup day (October 18).

Capecover - a 'sleeper' from New Zealand

VICTORIAN jockey Michelle Payne had a day out at Morphettville on Saturday.

Payne recorded a winning treble which included Kiwi stayer Capecover in the Tokyo City Cup who Payne rode Capecover in similar fashion to her two other victories on Doin'thehardyards and Sparks Fly.

She sat quietly before bringing the gelding with a strong finish to score by 1 1/2 lengths in the Listed Tokyo City Cup (1600m), beating local galloper Dollops and Verco Road.

Being well down in the cup weights (50kg), the six-year-old's Wanganui trainer Alexander Fieldes must now plan a course which will not only qualify the horse for the majors, but lift the gelding in the weights.

He has to decide whether Capecover backs up next week at Caulfield or waits until the following Friday.

"I did have the option of running him in a weight-for-age race over 1600m in Melbourne today, but at that level he just would not have been competitive," Fieldes said.

"That is why I settled on this softer race at handicap conditions. Start in something small and hopefully work up."

The trainer had intended bringing Capecover to Australia 12 months ago but those plans were thwarted because of the EI outbreak.

Capecover arrived from New Zealand two weeks ago and was guided by part-owner and NZ trainer Kevin Myers, who recommended the Adelaide race in preference to yesterday's Dato' Tan Chin Nam Stakes at Caulfield.

There was no shortage of support on track for the gelding despite the unsuitable journey. He was the most heavily backed runner in the race, from $9 into $5.50.

Payne said Capecover travelled well throughout, settling towards the rear but once he gained momentum in the straight, he went to the line virtually untouched.

Dollops was a big run in his first start at 1600m but his rider took off early.

The David Jolly-trained galloper hit the front in the straight but was left a sitting shot for the NZ-trained winner.

Capecover - a sleeper from New Zealand

Tony Reed from Adelaide Now wrote on the 12th September...

VICTORIAN jockey Michelle Payne had a day out at Morphettville on Saturday.

Payne recorded a winning treble which included Kiwi stayer Capecover in the Tokyo City Cup who Payne rode Capecover in similar fashion to her two other victories on Doin'thehardyards and Sparks Fly.

She sat quietly before bringing the gelding with a strong finish to score by 1 1/2 lengths in the Listed Tokyo City Cup (1600m), beating local galloper Dollops and Verco Road.

Being well down in the cup weights (50kg), the six-year-old's Wanganui trainer Alexander Fieldes must now plan a course which will not only qualify the horse for the majors, but lift the gelding in the weights.

He has to decide whether Capecover backs up next week at Caulfield or waits until the following Friday.

"I did have the option of running him in a weight-for-age race over 1600m in Melbourne today, but at that level he just would not have been competitive," Fieldes said.

"That is why I settled on this softer race at handicap conditions. Start in something small and hopefully work up."

The trainer had intended bringing Capecover to Australia 12 months ago but those plans were thwarted because of the EI outbreak.

Capecover arrived from New Zealand two weeks ago and was guided by part-owner and NZ trainer Kevin Myers, who recommended the Adelaide race in preference to yesterday's Dato' Tan Chin Nam Stakes at Caulfield.

There was no shortage of support on track for the gelding despite the unsuitable journey. He was the most heavily backed runner in the race, from $9 into $5.50.

Payne said Capecover travelled well throughout, settling towards the rear but once he gained momentum in the straight, he went to the line virtually untouched.

Dollops was a big run in his first start at 1600m but his rider took off early.

The David Jolly-trained galloper hit the front in the straight but was left a sitting shot for the NZ-trained winner.