Racing Victoria (RV) Head of Handicapping, David Hegan, has today announced that he has issued a weight penalty to Lunar Flare in the $8 million Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m), and to No Compromise in the $5 million Carlton Draught Caulfield Cup (2400m) after feature wins at the weekend.
Grahame Begg will realise a Melbourne Cup training dream as Lunar Flare becomes his first runner in ‘the race that stops a nation’, after she secured a ballot exemption with victory in the Group 3 The Bart Cummings (2510m) at Flemington on Saturday.
The seven-year-old mare receives an additional 0.5kg – rising from 51kg to 51.5kg – for her impressive win, while moving to first place on the Melbourne Cup Order of Entry.
Begg indicated post-race that Lunar Flare, whose sire Fiorente won the 2013 Melbourne Cup, will defend her 2021 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) title on Ladbrokes Cox Plate Day before her tilt at the Melbourne Cup 10 days later.
A second successive win in the $1 million Moonee Valley Gold Cup on 22 October would open the possibility of a further penalty for Lunar Flare subject to consideration by Hegan and the RV handicapping team at the time.
Lunar Flare’s penalty is 0.5kg less than that issued to the past three The Bart Cummings winners – Grand Promenade (2021), Persan (2020), and Surprise Baby (2019) – all of whom were unplaced in the Melbourne Cup a month later.
The Chris Waller-trained gelding No Compromise has been penalised 1kg in the Caulfield Cup, after his victory in Saturday’s Group 1 Metropolitan (2400m) at Royal Randwick.
No Compromise’s first Group 1 win has led to his weight being increased from 52.5kg to 53.5kg at Caulfield on 15 October, while moving him from 27th to 20th in the Order of Entry.
No Compromise’s penalty is the same issued to last year’s Metropolitan winner, the then four-year-old mare Montefilia, who went on to finish fourth in the Caulfield Cup with 52kg.
Hegan said: “Lunar Flare was perfectly ridden to take advantage of the way The Bart Cummings unfolded and then used her very impressive turn of foot to put the race away and withhold the late challengers.
“Her half-kilogram penalty means Lunar Flare meets some of her potential Melbourne Cup rivals up to one kilogram worse than Saturday.
“The last mare to win The Bart Cummings, Amelie’s Star (2017), was not penalised when weighted on 51kg, and later finished 16th in the Melbourne Cup. Only two seven-year-old-mares have won the Melbourne Cup, Makybe Diva (2005) and Acrasia (1904).
“No Compromise overcame a checkered passage and revelled in the heavy conditions to weave through the field and display his toughness to win his first Group 1 race by the narrowest of margins.
“The one-kilogram penalty, which is the same as Montefilia last year and now gives him 53.5kg, takes into account his overall form as a Group 1 winner but also the advantaged weight relativities he received in the Metropolitan against some of his possible Caulfield Cup competitors.”
Third acceptances for the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate close at 12 noon tomorrow (Tuesday, 4 October) with an updated order of entry for the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup to be released by RV tomorrow afternoon.