The two Japanese horses, Fame Game and Hokko fearless, have run with credit in top long-distance races in Tokyo, one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the world for stayers, while Our Ivanhowe, like last year’s Melbourne Cup victor Protectionist, has come from Germany, which has in recent years produced the winners of a few of Europe’s top 2400 metres races, horses like Danedream and Novelist.
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Bosson will ride the favourite Mongolian Khan and walked the course on Friday in company with Brent Thomson.
Bosson settled the four-year-old in the first half of the field and made his move to attack the leaders approaching the turn. There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of pace in the race so my thinking is that Snow Sky could lead, or at least be very prominent from his good draw.
That form is good enough to win a Caulfield and Melbourne Cup here, of that there can be no doubt. “I have a couple of buddies at the TV station and I think it was them who left the camera on”.
The horse has a few hope of winning but maybe the Melbourne Cup is a more realistic goal?
He said the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Snow Sky had importantly had a trouble-free lead-in to Saturday’s big race.
“He was handsome and relaxed”.
“He could go again”.
However he feels the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup is where Fame Game will be better suited.
“A big thanks to Murray and the team”. “I can’t believe she is still 20-1”.
“I want to try to win”. Everything is paying off.
Boss, who won three Melbourne Cups on wonder mare Makybe Diva, and lost the 2004 Caulfield Cup on her to Elvstroem in a photo, said he was not going into the race thinking about clinching the Grand Slam.
But now he and connections must await the decision on a penalty from Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter at 11:00am (AEDT) on Monday.
Last year’s two minor placegetters are among four horses to line up for their second attempt at the Caulfield Cup.
Trip To Paris was cut to 7-1 outright second favourite (from 25) for the Emirates Melbourne Cup by Paddy Power, who make Japanese star Fame Game the 9-2 favourite (from 7) after he also ran a fine Flemington trial when staying on strongly for sixth.
But the five-year-old, trained by Ed Dunlop, recorded the fastest final sectionals of the race.
“It would be nice, but I’ve done a few pretty great things in my industry”, he said.
“Marvellous atmosphere it’s just great to get out there”.
Greg Carpenter, Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper, has spent years setting weights and measures, sifting performances, making comparisons and coming to conclusions which he then must express in a mathematical formula – the amount of weight one horse carries compared to another.
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Trevor-Jones believes Red Cadeaux’s Melbourne Cup aspirations are alive and well, and for the fifth time he has landed in Melbourne and immediately settled in.
