Racing Melbourne Cup 2023 ( no after the fact posts)

Melbourne Cup winner??

  • 2.ALENQUER(9) - Damien Oliver

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 8.RIGHT YOU ARE(15) - John Allen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 13.OKITA SOUSHI(20) - Dylan Gibbons (a)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 14.SHERAZ(22) - Beau Mertens

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 16.MAGICAL LAGOON(7) - Mark Du Plessis

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 19.VIRTUOUS CIRCLE(6) - Craig Newitt

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 22.INTERPRETATION(17) - Teo Nugent

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 23.KALAPOUR(14) - Zac Lloyd (a)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    99
  • Poll closed .

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Post Caulfield Cup rankings

1A. GOLD TRIP - Really good run in the Caulfield Cup beating everything bar the winner heading this way comfortably. Expect Flemington to suit him a lot better and presume he meets WAF slightly better at the weights now heading there. Has the class and is already proven running out a strong 2 miles in the Melbourne Cup. All going to be weather dependent as to whether he is the top seed or not. If the track has give in it then it really improves his chances and puts the slows on his main rivals.

1B. WITHOUT A FIGHT - Brilliant winner of the Caulfield Cup. Had a couple lengths on Gold Trip and 5 lengths + on everything else heading this way so very hard to see anything else bar GT being able to turn the tables at Flemington. Technically he is unproven at the trip but with 2800m form in England the expectation is that shouldn't be a problem out here. His wheels don't spin on a wet surface though so if we have a soft track then its almost rule a line territory. Firm track though and he is the one to beat.

3. SOULCOMBE - Complete barrier rogue. Walked out 8 lengths behind them in the Caulfield Cup and ran really well considering. Made up good ground in that race through the 800-600 and was on the back of WAF and GT but then got crowded for a bit of room in the straight before plugging home reasonably. I think 2 miles at Flemington will suit him perfectly and that was a decent Cup trial all things considered but he is just consistently shit at the barriers and is just getting worse so no reason to think he wont miss the kick poorly at Flemington again and have to pass the whole field.

4. VAUBAN - Valiant King didn't exactly frank the form at Caulfield but he finished around these sort of horses and Vauban did beat him pretty comfortably by a couple lengths so would expect him to be in this sort of area still.

5. BREAKUP - Average at best Caulfield Cup run and he just didnt seem fast enough or good enough to sustain speed over 2400m. I expect the bigger Flemington track and the 2 miles to both be better suited for him but not by enough to be able to make up the difference on those already rated ahead of him.

Doesn't seem any point in going beyond this for winning chances for me. It was a strong Caulfield Cup and that is THE form race for Flemington with the other lead ups looking pretty lackluster. For the sake of looking deeper ill just round out the list with the best roughies for the back end of exotics.

ASHRUN - Currently $120 was one of the better runs out of the Bart Cummings. Off the scene for pretty much 2 years his first up run this prep was really good sitting 3WNC and getting beat 3.75L over 1700m. Backed that up in the Bart Cummings running on really well from last clocking the best last 800, 600 and 400 whilst giving away 5kg to the first two.

DAQUIANSWEET JUNIOR - Currently $101. As previously stated in this thread he is basically on the same prep as last year where he ran a credible 6th in the Cup and gets in nice and light in the weights. His 3200m form in this country is good and generally runs above market expectations when getting out to a trip so can see him running past some more tired horses at the end.

SPANISH MISSION - Currently $65. As said above he had been pegged as an out and out 2 miler since he got here and he has had 6 runs since that Spring for 5 goes at 2000m or less and one go at 2400m on a wet track which he doesn't go on. He is older, locally trained and had injuries so obviously not near his best but he has a lot more class potential than anything else in the dregs and his last start Turnbull 8th has a lot of merit crossing the line with most of these types.

VIRTUOUS CIRCLE - Currently $55. Had no luck in the Bart Cummings when running into traffic everywhere. Think he finishes considerably closer with luck and meets most of that field better of fat the weights should they meet again at Flemington.

MORE FELONS - Currently $300. For the plays tall believers. Yet to be seen but on his European form he isn't really any worse off than a lot of others also making up the numbers and he is a considerably better price than most of them. He will stay the 2 miles no problems and gets in light at the weights. For comparison he took on Absurde in the Ebor in their last race start before coming here and he was 14/1 vs 7/1 in that race carrying basically a kilo more and now meets him 3.5kg better off for a 3 length defeat in that race so I think id rather spec MF at 15x the price.


Trouble with a lot of the roughies though is they are on the day F4 add ons and if they run well before the Cup the odds will likely be gone and if they run like shit you probably dont want to be with them...
 
Cannot believe how short GT is for the cup. To prove how hard it is to win with 58.5 the last horse to do this was Think Big in 1975 and it has never done since the race became international. To add this he will need to do it on a track rating that will not be rain effected. No wonder Zara selected WAF.
 
Cannot believe how short GT is for the cup. To prove how hard it is to win with 58.5 the last horse to do this was Think Big in 1975 and it has never done since the race became international. To add this he will need to do it on a track rating that will not be rain effected. No wonder Zara selected WAF.

How many horses had won with 57.5 before he did last year?
 
Cannot believe how short GT is for the cup. To prove how hard it is to win with 58.5 the last horse to do this was Think Big in 1975 and it has never done since the race became international. To add this he will need to do it on a track rating that will not be rain effected. No wonder Zara selected WAF.

There will be 16+ horses in the race that are complete junk though.

Apart from the top 4-6 (being generous) it’s a very weak Melbourne cup.

He can definitely win it.
 

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He is not carrying 57.5 and he is not 20/1 and he will not get a rain affected track. All 2022 facts. He can win but 4.50 in iluvparis talk is poison.

It certainly is when he is 6.60 betfair
 
Would 3.6mm be enough to make much difference?
Flemington drains well, and the forecast is for 25 degrees on the day, but if they start on a good 4 (which seems to be the policy these days) and that forecast amount of rain falls through the program it’ll certainly help those looking for a bit of cut in the ground. Hard to say if that gets it into the soft range.
 
His 3rds in Listed grade were in a field of 4 and his other was beaten 14.5 lengths so take them with a giant grain of salt.

He obviously still needs to prove himself at the trip but the overwhelming majority of the time if you can run 2800m in Europe you can run 3200m down here. His run last year was far too poor to be put down to the trip for me. He was gone miles out and finished over 20 lengths off them
Yes, I agree that if they can run 2800m over there it generally means they’ll get 2 miles here.

But I notice that his 4 runs over that sort of trip were all in small fields (3,4,6 and 8 runners) and very slowly run races. Two of those races were at listed level, and 2 at group 3 level.

The most competitive of those races (with 8 runners) was the Geoffrey Freer where he was beaten by 6 lengths weakening out of it in the last furlong, with modest performers like Rodrigo Diaz and Pablo Escobarr beating him home comfortably.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope he runs well, he’s a good result for me. But I think some are glossing over what is a genuine question mark over him.
 
Yes, I agree that if they can run 2800m over there it generally means they’ll get 2 miles here.

But I notice that his 4 runs over that sort of trip were all in small fields (3,4,6 and 8 runners) and very slowly run races. Two of those races were at listed level, and 2 at group 3 level.

The most competitive of those races (with 8 runners) was the Geoffrey Freer where he was beaten by 6 lengths weakening out of it in the last furlong, with modest performers like Rodrigo Diaz and Pablo Escobarr beating him home comfortably.

Don’t get me wrong, I hope he runs well, he’s a good result for me. But I think some are glossing over what is a genuine question mark over him.

No one’s glossing over it. That’s why he is 8.50 and not $4 fave.
 

Just the 80+mm forecast on this site for a couple of days before the race :oops:
Looks like they are out of line with other forecasters........even so!

Norway is the gold standard and there is no rain coming

 

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He is not carrying 57.5 and he is not 20/1 and he will not get a rain affected track. All 2022 facts. He can win but 4.50 in iluvparis talk is poison.
Why are we still acting like Gold Trip can only win on wet tracks?

It has come back this prep with three great runs on dry tracks.

Last weekend it probably comes very close to winning on any other track except for the Valley.

Agree it is very short and I won’t be keen to jump in at the price but that just sums up how weak this cup is.
 
Why are we still acting like Gold Trip can only win on wet tracks?

It has come back this prep with three great runs on dry tracks.

Last weekend it probably comes very close to winning on any other track except for the Valley.

Agree it is very short and I won’t be keen to jump in at the price but that just sums up how weak this cup is.

He is a good horse on a dry track and a very good horse on wet track. Is he good enough to win the cup with 58.5 on a good track, possibly but I guess we will find out.
 

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Racing Melbourne Cup 2023 ( no after the fact posts)

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