Order Of St George is set to bypass the Melbourne Cup, although Aidan O'Brien could still be well represented with both Kingfisher and Bondi Beach expected to make the trip to Australia.
Order Of St George was last seen when powering home by 11 lengths in the Irish St Leger, with Australian owner Lloyd Williams and his son Nick subsequently buying a share of the Galileo colt as well as stakes in his Melbourne-bound stablemates.
All three have been in quarantine at Ballydoyle but Williams jnr reports that Order Of St George will not be on the plane when the O’Brien team jet out on Thursday.
He told www.racing.com: “I don’t think there’s too much of a problem with him.
‘Big future’
“He was always a 50-50 chance of coming and I think Aidan’s just decided not to risk him on a hard track. He’s a young horse with a big future so he can come out next spring instead.”
Bondi Beach, who finished second in the St Leger at Doncaster, and Ascot Gold Cup runner-up Kingfisher are both certain of a start in the two-mile feature at Flemington on November 3rd.
O’Brien is launching a very strong raid on Friday’s Dubai Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket with both Minding and Coolmore featuring among 10 declared for the Group One contest.
Minding, a daughter of Galileo out of a Group One winner in Lillie Langtry, beat her stablemate Ballydoyle to win the Moyglare Stud Stakes last time out. That form was given a huge boost when Ballydoyle went to Longchamp last weekend and was an impressive winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac.
Coolmore has a lot to live up to given her name and the fact she is a sister to Gleneagles, but she is going some way to doing that already, winning a Group Three last time out.
