The likely 24-horse Melbourne Cup 2024 field for Tuesday November 5 is emerging as the countdown to the 164th running of the ‘Race That Stops a Nation’ heats up, and below Races.com.au will keep you up to date with all the latest Melbourne Cup news and updates on the contenders.
Latest Melbourne Cup News:
Kiwi galloper Mahrajaan has been ruled out after failing a scan.
Yet another Melbourne Cup contender has come out of the field for Tuesday with Shaune Ritchie & Colm Murray‘s Auckland Cup winner, Mahrajaan, officially withdrawn on vet’s advice.
The Kitten’s Joy gelding, who was to have been ridden by Declan Bates was last seen running 13th in the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes and was rated a $101 roughie in the Melbourne Cup markets at the time of his withdrawal.
“The independent imaging panel deemed the horse to be at heightened risk of injury based on the results of its CT scan,” a statement by RV stewards confirmed.
In his place moving into the Top 24 in the latest order of entry is Manzoice (50kg) for the Waller stable.
Manzoice hasn’t won a race since the 2022 Victoria Derby and was last seen running 3.62 lengths off Okita Soushi in the Group 2 Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup.
He is at $201 in Melbourne Cup betting at Ladbrokes.com.au.
Earlier:
Onesmoothoperator has been cleared to run in the 2024 Melbourne Cup field.
The best fancied of the visitors was the Brian Ellison-trained Onesmoothoperator who raced his way up the odds with an impressive Ladbrokes Geelong Cup win.
News on Friday however that the horse had sustained a cut to his heel had him easing in the markets with the galloper to be reshod and reexamined by Racing Victoria vets on Saturday morning before being cleared to run.
Racing Victoria vets passed him fit on Saturday morning with connections given the go ahead to pay the $49,500 final Melbourne Cup acceptance fee by 4:30pm (AEDT).
“Onesmoothoperator was reinspected by RV vets this morning and has now been passed suitable to accept,” an RV release said.
The well-backed Ciaron Maher-trained Interpretation failed to pass his vet inspection on Thursday but was re-examined on Friday and subsequently cleared to run.
After failing to finish in the 2022 Melbourne Cup, the Galileo gelding returned last year off a Bendigo Cup victory and ran an eye-catching sixth.
He gets his chance again lining-up in his third Melbourne Cup field on Tuesday with Racing Victoria confirming on Friday that he will wear an Equicast on his left fore foot.
Interpretation was as short as $11 earlier in the week in the Melbourne Cup betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au but is now out to $19 with Teo Nugent to ride on 50kg.
The latest horse to officially come out of this year’s Melbourne Cup was the the John Symons & Sheila Laxon-trained Caloundra Cup winning The Mission mare, Mission Of Love.
Maher will likely saddle-up four runners in the Melbourne Cup field looking for another win after his victory in partnership with David Eustace with Gold Trip in 2022.
His other 2024 Melbourne Cup contenders his impressive last start Ladbrokes Moonee Valley Gold Cup winner Okita Soushi, Sydney Cup champion Circle Of Fire, and Saint George who has moved to number 24 on the order of entry following the withdrawal of Mission Of Love.
Mission Of Love was to have been ridden by Nikita Beriman in her first Melbourne Cup ride.
Circle Of Fire will be ridden by dual defending Melbourne Cup winning jockey Mark Zahra who chases an historic three-pate with a third straight win on as many horses.
Trainer Chris Waller looks set to have four chances at securing this year’s Group 1 $8.56 million Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m), although the original 56kg topweight and former all-in favourite Via Sistina has been a confirmed non-starter for the master horseman.
She won the Cox Plate at The Valley last weekend to incredible scenes with an eight-length romp home in record time to shoot to the top of pre-field Melbourne Cup betting markets at Ladbrokes.com.au.
The team at Yulong Investments however have opted not to test her over the 3200m with Via to be saved for a Group 1 VRC Champions Stakes (2000m) run on the last day of the Cup Carnival instead.
He already has a very strong hand in this year’s predicted Melbourne Cup field with the likes of his Caulfield Cup placegetters Buckaroo (2nd) and Land Legend (3rd) doing plenty right in the lead-up to the world’s richest handicap race.
Buckaroo heads the latest Melbourne Cup odds online at $5.
Waller’s other runners safely inside the current top 24 in the Melbourne Cup order of entry for the are Kovalica (Damian Lane) and Valiant King (Craig Newitt).
Land Legend will be ridden by Hong Kong-based Zac Purton while Brazilian hoop Joao Moreira is engaged for the ride on likely Cup Day favourite Buckaroo.
Waller famously won his first Melbourne Cup trophy in 2021 with the ill-fated Verry Elleegant who tragically passed away while in foal earlier in the year.
The international presence in the 2024 Melbourne Cup field received a blow on Tuesday morning with Aidan O’Brien’s undefeated Galileo entire, Jan Brueghel, ruled out due to the results of his CT scan.
Another international rocketing up the Melbourne Cup markets is the Harry Eustace-trained UK raider Sea King following his powerhouse 3.75 length romp home in Wednesday’s Group 3 Bendigo Cup (2400m).
The win was enough to move the horse up into the Top 24 on the updated Melbourne Cup order of entry and Sea King was subsequently penalised a half-kilo to take his weight up to 50.5kg.
Hollie Doyle will ride the horse on Tuesday taking the number of female Melbourne Cup riders in the 2024 edition to a record four.
Two Willie Mullins-trained Irish raiders return with Vauban and Absurde back for a second shot after running 14th and 7th respectively in the 2023 Melbourne Cup results.
Japan’s Warp Speed was disappointing first-up down under with a flat Caulfield Cup performance but is not without his supports to improve out to two miles looking to join Delta Blues (2006) as the only Japanese visitors to win the classic.
In an update on Thursday, the Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young-trained Muramasa and Brayden Star were both officially withdrawn on vet’s advice after their CT scans revealed a “heighted risk of injury” should they run in next Tuesday’s big race. Full story here.
Trust In You has now gained a start with Mark Du Plessis to ride the triple-figure roughie for Kiwi trainers Bruce Wallace & Grant Cooksley on 50kg.
Likely 2024 Melbourne Cup Field*
1. Vauban (FR) (Willie Mullins) to be ridden by William Buick (55.5kg)
2. Circle Of Fire (GB) (Ciaron Maher) to be ridden by Mark Zahra (54.5kg)
3. Buckaroo (GB) (Chris Waller) to be ridden by Joao Moreira (54.5kg)
4. Warp Speed (JPN) (Noboru Takagi) to be ridden by Akira Sugawara (54.5kg)
5. Sharp ‘n’ Smart (NZ) (Graeme & Deborah Rogerson) to be ridden by Michael Dee (53.5kg)
6. Kovalica (NZ) (Chris Waller) to be ridden by Damian Lane (53.5kg)
7. Just Fine (IRE) (Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott) to be ridden by Jye McNeil (53kg -includes 0.5kg penalty)
8. Land Legend (FR) (Chris Waller) to be ridden by Zac Purton (53kg – includes 1.0kg penalty)
9. Absurde (FR) (Willie Mullins) to be ridden by Kerrin McEvoy (52.5kg)
10. Athabascan (FR) (John O’Shea & Tom Charlton) to be ridden by Zac Lloyd (a) (52kg)
11. Knight’s Choice (John Symons & Sheila Laxon) to be ridden by Robbie Dolan (51.5kg)
12. Okita Soushi (IRE) (Ciaron Maher) to be ridden by Jamie Kah (51kg – includes 1.0kg penalty)
13. Onesmoothoperator (USA) (Brian Ellison) to be ridden by Craig Williams (51kg – includes 1.0kg penalty)
14. Zardozi (James Cummings) to be ridden by Andrea Atzeni (51kg)
15. Sea King (GB) (Harry Eustace) to be ridden by Hollie Doyle (50.5 includes 0.5 penalty kg)
16. Valiant King (GB) (Chris Waller) to be ridden by Craig Newitt (50.5kg)
17. Interpretation (IRE) (Ciaron Maher) to be ridden by Teo Nugent (50kg)
18. Fancy Man (IRE) (Annabel Neasham & Rob Archibald) to be ridden by Ronnie Stewart (50kg)
19. Mostly Cloudy (IRE) (Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young) to be ridden by Karis Teetan (50kg)
20. The Map (Dan Clarken & Oopy MacGillvray) to be ridden by Rachel King (50kg)
21. Positivity (NZ) (Andrew Forsman) to be ridden by Winona Costin (50kg)
22. Trust In You (NZ) (Bruce Wallace & Grant Cooksley) to be ridden by Mark Du Plessis (50kg)
23. Saint George (GB) (Ciaron Maher) jockey TBC (50kg)
24. Manzoice (Chris Waller) jockey TBC (50kg)
NEXT IN LINE
25. Kinesilology (GB) Chris Waller jockey TBC (50kg)
* Saddlecloth numbers, horses, trainers, jockeys and weights are all pre-final acceptance predictions only and subject to change at any time without notice.
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