So many of New Zealand’s best young stayers are sold or transferred to Australian stables and most of the Melbourne Cup field these days are made up of either Northern Hemisphere-trained horses or imports from that part of the world.
New Zealand’s domination of the Melbourne Cup more or less ended after the golden run of Jezabeel (1998), Brew (2000) and Ethereal (2001), and there have been progressively fewer New Zealand-trained starters since and few legitimate winning chances.
Perhaps the last real New Zealand-trained winning hope was Caulfield Cup winner Mongolian Khan in 2015, who was scratched with colic only days before the Cup when one of the favourites.
Now, a fellow Cambridge 4-year-old is qualified for the Cup, and means trainers James and Wellwood can set Mark Twain for the first Tuesday in November without the pressure of trying to win their way in.
But Wellwood admits there is still work to do.
“What we have to do is race him and teach him how to race,” he told the Herald.
“He was on the wrong leg and hanging the other day, but we saw what he did when he changed legs and got going, that was pretty exciting,” says Wellwood.
“But he will need to be a more well-rounded horse for a Melbourne Cup, but at least we can now concentrate on that education.
“We obviously don’t have a plan yet, but because he is an out-and-out stayer he will end up racing in races in the spring he can’t win, but that we hope he learns from.
“It is very exciting, though. We know not many trainers, either side of the Tasman, get the luxury of knowing they are in the Cup this far out.”
While the Cup and all its hype are months away, another classic awaits the James/Wellwood team in what seems certain to be 12 days rather than five.
Orchestral is second favourite for Saturday’s ATC Derby, but she is almost certain to start instead in the ATC Oaks a week later, that decision to be rubber-stamped on Monday morning.
“We will talk to the owners on Monday morning, but I’d say she will go to the Oaks for sure,” says Wellwood.
“The Derby is a quick turnaround and there is rain forecast for the back end of this week which we’d like to avoid.
“She knew she had a race on Saturday night, but was very bright by this morning [Sunday] and was bucking and squealing when I took her for a walk.
“So she has taken no harm from the race and if anything I think she is getting better with racing and we expect her to be improved again for the Oaks.”
As a NZ Derby winner, Orchestral should relish the step back up to 2400m and the bigger Randwick track, and with James McDonald already engaged she is the $1.80 favourite to end the first half of 2024 unbeaten this year.
Fellow Kiwi glamour girl Imperatriz will take centre stage, not only for New Zealand, but for the whole meeting, when she starts a hot favourite in Saturday’s A$3 million TJ Smith at Randwick.
