Racing: Kirklees pays for trip to Melbourne

Godolphin stable keen to bag another Caulfield Cup after All The Good's win

The Godolphin stable has confirmed Kirklees will enter quarantine this week in preparation for an assault on the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

The 5-year-old won a 2400m group three race on the Polytrack at Kempton on Saturday to cement his trip to Australia.

Godolphin's racing manager Simon Crisford said the immediate aim would be the Caulfield Cup which Sheikh Mohammed's operation won last year with All The Good.

"Kirklees is going to Australia and will go into quarantine on Tuesday," Crisford said on Saturday.

"He is in the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.

"We're not too pleased with his weight in the Melbourne Cup but the Caulfield Cup is worth targeting anyway and we'll see how he goes there.

"He's doing everything right and I was pleased to see him settle so well today."

Kirklees has 56kg in both Cups with the winner of the Caulfield Cup certain to get a penalty.

All The Good carried 54.5kg to win the Caulfield Cup and was rehandicapped 2kg for the Melbourne Cup.

But the Godolphin hopes of winning the Melbourne Cup were shattered yet again when All The Good was found to be injured in the week leading up to the race. Kirklees is a $31 chance in both Cups.

Meanwhile, much closer to home, four-time Scobie Breasley medallist Craig Williams is at the head of the queue to ride Caulfield Cup favourite Vigor in the $2.5 million race.

Williams, along with Corey Brown, is a natural lightweight who has no problem riding Vigor at his allotted 51kg.

Trainer Danny O'Brien told the Herald Sun he did not want a jockey who could not make Vigor's weight.

Damien Oliver, the jockey of choice for O'Brien and who partnered Vigor when he carried 59kg to win the Makybe Diva Stakes, rarely rides below 53kg.

O'Brien said he did not regard searching for a jockey as an ordeal.

"I've spoken to Craig and I know Corey can do 51kg," O'Brien said. "I don't want him to carry any more than 51kg. We've got 51kg, we'll use it."

O'Brien noted that six jockeys - Oliver, Stephen Baster, Glen Boss, Danny Nikolic, Steven King and Jamie Mott - had won on Vigor.

O'Brien said Vigor pulled up "super", despite a tough Makybe Diva run. The horse will now head to the Underwood Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield on September 21.

Vigor's sixth behind Zarita in the South Australian Derby, when very green and inexperienced, set in motion plans for a crack at the 2009 spring.

"In the back of my mind I thought he might be a Cups' horse in 18 months. We tested him through those races last spring and summer," O'Brien said.

"It was just the way he kept doing things, he was so relaxed and doing them so easily."

When Vigor won the Bagot Handicap, his first start at 2500m, on New Year's Day, O'Brien put the spring plan in action - a cameo appearance in late April - and then basically a weight-for-age campaign leading into the Cup.

Former English stayer Speed Gifted, a strong first-up winner of the Spring Is The Season Handicap at Flemington, was also most impressive.

Unlike Vigor, Speed Gifted has not passed all the clauses which will make for a seamless passage into the Caulfield Cup.

Trainer Lee Freedman said he would start Speed Gifted, unbeaten in both his Australian runs, in the Naturalism Stakes (2000m).

Freedman will then decide whether to take the $9 Caulfield Cup second favourite to The Metropolitan in a bid to gain a Cups start.

* Millionaire racehorse owner Nathan Tinkler has split with yet another trainer, with Jason Coyle walking out on Tinkler during the weekend.

Coyle's departure comes 10 months after Tinkler split with Anthony Cummings.

John Thompson, a long-time foreman for Bart Cummings will become interim trainer of the star-studded 80-plus team. AAP