Last year, a grand total of 24 international visitors passed through Racing Victoria’s International Horse Centre at Werribee, before competing against the locals during the Spring Racing Carnival.
They left Melbourne with more than $7 million in their suitcases thanks in no small part to their total dominance of the Melbourne Cup, with Rekindling leading home an Irish 1-2-3 and a further five overseas runners finishing in the top ten of the ‘race that stops a nation’.
This year’s crop of spring raiders could include Royal Ascot winners, gallopers from the Ballydoyle stable run by the world’s leading trainer, Aidan O’Brien, and some high-class stayers from Japan.
Paul Bloodworth, Racing Victoria’s General Manager International and Racing Operations, recently returned from Europe, where he spent time with several trainers targeting the Spring Racing Carnival.
Here, he gives his verdict on the long list of potential travellers…
Benbatl (GBR)
Age (southern hemisphere years): 5
Trainer: Saeed bin Suroor
Stakes wins: 5
Total wins: 6
PB: Godolphin have accepted The Valley’s Cox Plate invitation for Benbatl, who was disappointing at Royal Ascot but bounced back to form with a dominant win in the Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis (2000m) in Munich, where the slightly softer surface was much more to his liking. A highly-rated horse, it would be very exciting to see him come out here to take on the mighty mare Winx.
Blair House (GBR)
Age: 6
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Strakes wins: 1
Total wins: 4
PB: Blair House has shown some very strong form in Dubai this year, with two wins and a second from five starts, including a defeat of his stablemates Benbatl and Folkswood in March. He also came within a half length of winning the ultra-competitive Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot last year. He is due to arrive in Melbourne on 8 September and is one of several confirmed travellers from the Godolphin stable of Charlie Appleby, who has enjoyed great success here over the past two years.
Chestnut Coat (JPN)
Age: 5
Trainer: Yoshito Yahagi
Total wins: 4
Stakes wins: 3
PB: Twice a winner in January in his native Japan, before finishing second in the Nikkei Sho in March and fifth in the Tenno Sho Spring in April. He was no better that average in the Meguro Kinen, but perhaps was unsuited by being asked to back up so quickly. Japanese horses have a very good record in the Spring Carnival, and he looks capable of continuing that after being entered for both the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup, for which he is amongst the early favourites.
Cliffs of Moher (IRE)
Age: 5
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Total wins: 3
Stakes wins: 2
PB: A highly consistent northern hemisphere four-year-old who ran fourth in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, then backed up in the Hardwicke Stakes to finish third. He is a very interesting runner who should be well suited to both Cups, and has now shown he can back up.
Dash of Spice (GBR)
Age: 5
Trainer: David Elsworth
Total wins: 3
Stakes wins: 0
PB: Another highly promising four-year-old who was very impressive when winning the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot over 2400m. He is trained and owned by the same connections that brought Persian Punch to Australia twice. His next run will be in the Ebor Handicap at York at the end of August, which will determine what they do next with him.
Folkswood (GBR)
Age: 6
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Stakes wins: 2
Total wins: 7
He enjoyed a highly successful Spring Racing Carnival last year, winning the Listed Cranbourne Cup before running a big race to finish third behind Winx in the Cox Plate. He’s back for a crack at the mighty mare this year, with a prep run likely to come in the Naturalism Stakes at Caulfield on the same day that his stablemate Jungle Cat is scheduled to make his Australian debut. His recent form includes victory in the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes earlier this year.
Jungle Cat (IRE)
Age: 7
Trainer: Charlie Appleby
Stakes wins: 2
Total wins: 7
The Godolphin sprinter has been in sensational form in Dubai this year, notching three straight wins including most recently in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint, a race which featured Australian raiders Illustrious Lad (fifth) and Music Magnate (11th). He is also scheduled to touch down in Melbourne on 8 September, and is likely to target the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield two weeks later.
Latrobe (IRE)
Age: 4
Trainer: Joseph O’Brien
Total wins: 2
Stakes wins: 1
PB: He was a surprise winner of the Irish Derby, beating home Saxon Warrior and Rostropovich (both trained by his father, Aidan O’Brien). Like last year’s Melbourne Cup winner, he is owned by Lloyd Williams so you would think there’s a good chance he will be coming – though he would be weighted higher than Rekindling.
Magic Circle (IRE)
Age: 7
Trainer: Ian Williams
Total wins: 8
Stakes wins: 1
PB: He has had two starts for his trainer Ian Williams and has hosed up on both occasions, firstly in the Chester Cup and then in the Henry II Stakes, beating Red Verdon by six lengths. He got within three lengths of Sir Michael Stoute’s star stayer Crystal Ocean, so his current form is first-rate. He will have one more run before coming out, possibly in the Lonsdale Cup. Magic Circle is owned by Dr Marwan Koukash, one of British racing’s most colourful characters who has promised to strip if he wins!
Marmelo (GBR)
Age: 6
Trainer: Hughie Morrison
Total wins: 5
Stakes wins: 4
PB: He finished like a train to come sixth in last year’s Caulfield Cup, and started favourite for the Melbourne Cup but could only managed ninth place. He resumed with an excellent second behind the high-class Vazirabad in the G2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, before winning a Listed race at York and adding the G2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil at Longchamp in mid-July. Hughie has advised us that Marmelo will only run in the Melbourne Cup this year, so he will arrive in the second shipment on 13 October.
Poet’s Word (IRE)
Age: 6
Trainer: Sir Michael Stoute
Stakes wins: 4
Total wins: 7
PB: Poet’s Word proved his class by lowering the colours of Cracksman at Royal Ascot, and followed that up with another victory in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Those performances saw him overtake Cracksman as Europe’s highest-rated horse, and whilst he is now more likely to plot a path towards the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, his trainer Sir Michael hasn’t ruled out a tilt at the Cox Plate just yet.
Prince of Arran (GBR)
Age: 6
Trainer: Charlie Fellowes
Total wins: 4
Stakes wins: 0
PB: Prince of Arran ran well behind the Queen’s horse Call to Mind in the Belmont International to pass the ballot, but he needs a Group placing in Europe to get his rating up. He makes Magic Circle’s form look even better, after finishing 8.5 lengths behind him in the Chester Cup. He came second to Withhold in the Northumberland Plate, which was another promising run but he still needs to do a bit more to guarantee a place on the plane.
Red Verdon (USA)
Age: 6
Trainer: Ed Dunlop
Total wins: 5
Stakes wins: 1
PB: He finished sixth in the Epsom Derby as a northern hemisphere three-year-old, and spent three following season running mostly in handicap races, with only moderate success. He seems to have found his best form as a five-year-old though, with placings behind Defoe, Magic Circle and Crystal Ocean in his last three starts. Red Verdon has done enough to get his rating up and is now pretty much guaranteed a run in the Cups, so is definitely coming out here for the Spring Carnival. He is trained and owned by the same connections who raced Red Cadeaux, a runner-up in the Melbourne Cup on three occasions.
Rostropovich (IRE)
Age: 4
Trainer: Aidan O’Brien
Total wins: 3
Stakes wins: 2
PB: Named after one of the greatest cellists of the 20th Century, Rostropovich finished second in the Irish Derby behind Latrobe, and also came second behind Old Persian in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot. Another sired by Galileo, I have a lot of time for him.
Sole Impact (JPN)
Age: 7
Trainer: Hirofumi Toda
Total wins: 4
Stakes wins: 1
PB: A northern hemisphere six-year-old with four wins from 37 starts. He has placings at Group 2 and 3 level over the past six months, and ran very well to finish fifth in the Meguro Kinen last start (beating home Chestnut Coat).
Salouen (IRE)
Age: 5
Trainer: Sylvester Kirk
Total wins: 2
Stakes wins: 0
PB: A promising four-year-old who was nosed out by Cracksman in the Coronation Cup, then might not have been suited by the pacemaker in his subsequent run in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, won by Waldgeist. To my mind, he has the right profile for the Caulfield Cup.
Thomas Hobson (GBR)
Age: 9
Trainer: Willie Mullins
Total wins: 9
Stakes wins: 0
PB: He finished an excellent sixth in last year’s Melbourne Cup, when he was ridden by Ben Allen who deputised for the injured Joao Moreira. He resumed in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Ascot, but was beaten by Pallasator by 16 lengths. His trainer Willie Mullins has a great record in the Spring Racing Carnival, with Max Dynamite finishing third in last year’s Melbourne Cup.
Withhold (GBR)
Age: 6
Trainer: Roger Charlton
Total wins: 4
Stakes wins: 0
PB: The lightly-raced six-year-old led all the way in the Northumberland Plate to beat Prince of Arran in impressive fashion. His trainer Roger Charlton has stated publicly that they will send Withhold to Melbourne without another start, meaning he will head into the Melbourne Cup with just one racetrack appearance under his belt over the past 12 months. It is an unconventional approach but one which his owner Tony Bloom, the chairman of English football team Brighton & Hove Albion, is hoping will pay dividends.