It is 22 years since Frankie Dettori saw first-hand how the Irish ex-jumper Vintage Crop transformed the Melbourne Cup, and the jockey will hope Willie Mullins's own dual-purpose star Max Dynamite can finally secure him one of the world's great racing events in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Dettori was on Drum Taps in that seminal 1993 renewal of Australia’s greatest sporting prize, and has had 10 more goes over the years at winning it, coming closest when Central Park was runner-up in 1999.
More than two decades later the Melbourne Cup’s internationalisation is emphasised by a record-equalling 11 overseas starters lining up at Flemington at 4.00 on Tuesday morning, including Aidan O’Brien’s first runners in “the race that stops a nation” since a controversial Ballydoyle raid in 2008.
Irish attack
Tom Magnier
, John Magnier’s Australian-based son, has declared the cup to be on Coolmore’s “bucket list”, so Kingfisher and Bondi Beach join Max Dynamite in a powerful Irish attack.
Neither will have Ryan Moore on their back, though, with the top English jockey instead trying to follow up his 2014 success on Protectionist by winning on the topweight Snow Sky.
That Moore flies to Australia from the Breeders Cup in Kentucky, via riding Johannes Vermeer to Group 1 success for O'Brien in Paris on Sunday, indicates the Melbourne Cup's place in the global calendar. But since there is no more globally recognised rider than Dettori, few would argue against a win for the Italian superstar being apt.
Despite his own Breeders Cup disappointment on Golden Horn, Dettori goes to Melbourne on the back of one of the greatest seasons of his long career and with Ireland’s champion jumps trainer dispatching nothing but positive bulletins about Max Dynamite.
This will be Mullins's own third attempt at "the Cup" and Simenon's fourth a couple of years ago has only increased his desire to follow in the footsteps of Vintage Crop's trainer Dermot Weld.
“It was fantastic to see Dermot win at the time and this is possibly the biggest race in the world at the moment,” Mullins told local media in Melbourne, not trying to disguise his growing hopes for a horse who finished fourth in very different circumstances in Cheltenham’s County Hurdle last March. “You have to get a clear run, you need clear running, but the Gods are smiling on us so far.”
Good position
Given a quick start, Dettori should be able to exploit a stall-two draw to secure a good position, but the draw has been less kind to O’Brien’s disqualified Leger “winner” Bondi Beach, a three-year-old like Mahler, who finished third for Ireland’s champion flat trainer in 2007.
Horses trained in Ireland, France and Japan have carried off the cup since Vintage Crop but, remarkably, despite having much the greatest number of runners over the years, no British-trained horse has won.
Red Cadeaux, a triple runner-up, is back for a fifth try and is one of a half dozen UK-based runners which also include the veteran’s stable companion Trip To Paris.
However, there appears to be international unanimity among bookmakers that it is Japan’s Fame Game which will be the one to beat. Delta Blues scored for Japan in 2006 and an encouraging Caulfield Cup run has done nothing to dent the impression that Zac Purton’s mount holds plenty of positive credentials. 1: Fame Game. 2: Max Dynamite. 3: Sky Hunter. 4: Criterion
