It is the tale of two cities in this year’s Melbourne Cup. Sydney’s biggest trainer, Chris Waller, is at home without a runner, looking at his Cup from Verry Elleegant’s win last year, while Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Victoria’s largest stable, have five runners.
It is not quite the worst of times for Waller, who saddles up three in the Big Dance at Randwick on Tuesday.
Ethan Brown gives a salute as Smokin’ Romans wins the Turnbull Stakes last month.Credit:Vince Caligiuri, Getty Images
Neither is it the best of times for Maher and Eustace, whose Cup hopes start at $17 with Gold Trip and Smokin’ Romans and move out to $101 for Grand Promenade – unless, of course, they lift their first Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.
“We were always going to have a big team for the Cup from the beginning of the spring, it was going to be what stood up and what improved,” Maher said. “But five is a good number and it is a remarkable effort by our team. Now I’m hoping we have the right one.”
Robert Hickmott holds the record for most runners in a single Melbourne Cup with six in 2013, all for Lloyd Williams, but Maher and Eustace have done it across five different ownership groups. Caulfield Cup runner-up Gold Trip and beaten favourite at Caulfield Smokin’ Romans are at the top of Maher’s list in the Melbourne Cup.
“Gold Trip might get the conditions to suit and was very good in the Caulfield Cup and then just had no luck at a crucial time in the Cox Plate,” Maher said. “He is the sort of horse that you know won’t run a bad race but he has the top weight.
“Smokin’ Romans probably has the right weight and showed with the Turnbull that he likes Flemington. We have targeted the race with him.”
Interpretation, which faces a race morning vet check after showing signs of lameness on Monday, had been Maher’s early pick but is out to $41 after disappointing in the Bart Cummings and Geelong Cup.
Maher is sure he will run the 3200m right out and said he reminded him of Floating Artist, which scraped into the Cup last year and ran fourth, the stable’s best effort in the race that stops the nation so far.
“He needed to win his last couple of starts to make sure he would get in and didn’t,” Maher said. “He has scraped in the on the minimum like Floating Artist and he is a proper two-miler and a lot of these horses won’t run the trip and I know he will.
“High Emocean is different again, she has won her way in and has earned a crack it, while Grand Promenade ran well last year, but isn’t in that form now.”
