They may be small in number but Paul Bloodworth believes the first shipment of four international horses for this year’s spring carnival could contain the Caulfield Cup winner.
Three horses from Europe and one horse from Japan will enter pre-export quarantine in the next 48 hours ahead of flights to Melbourne later in the month.
All horses have so far met the requirements of RV’s veterinary protocols to compete in the spring.
Bloodworth, who leads Racing Victoria’s recruitment of international horses, said all but one of the quartet will run in the $5 million Caulfield Cup.
“Our first shipment of horses goes into pre-export quarantine later this week,” Bloodworth said. “As it stands, we’ve got three horses from Europe and one from Japan. Smallish numbers but a good group of horses. The Japanese horse is a mare called Golden Snap who ran second on Sunday. The three European horses are Onesmoothoperator, who won the Geelong Cup last year, a horse called Presage Nocturne, a French horse by Wootton Bassett trained by Allesandro Botti and the other horse is Meydaan, that Simon and Ed Crisford train.”
The Newmarket-based Crisfords came close to Caulfield Cup glory in 2023 when West Wind Blows ran a narrow second and Bloodworth said their hunger to win a feature race in Australia has only grown since then.
Meydaan, who is $26 in Bet365’s Caulfield Cup market, ran third in the G3 September Stakes over 2400m, trailing only Giavellotto and one-time Arc favourite Kalpana.
“He ran third in a race at Kempton on Saturday night and I would say it’s one of the better Caulfield Cup trials you’re going to see this year,” he said. “Ed Crisford described the race as the King George masquerading as a Group 3 race at Kempton. A horse called Giavellotto won it – he won a Group 1 in Hong Kong and is rated about 120 – and second was a horse called Kalpana who is a top class filly. He was right behind them and the team were thrilled with him.”
French stayer Pressage Nocturne is also $26 for the Caulfield Cup and Bloodworth pointed to a familiar race on his form card that Australian punters can use as a reference to his chances of Cups glory.
“Presage Nocturne is a really nice horse that has won a Group 3 and placed at Group 1 level,” he said. He ran in the Kergorlay at his last start, which is a race that Dunaden, Americain and Protectionist used en route to winning the Melbourne Cup. It was ridiculously run, a typical slowly-run French staying race but he finished the race off well.”
Golden Snap, trained by Katsunori Tanaka and likely to be ridden by an Australia jockey, will use the Caulfield Cup to potentially qualify for the Melbourne Cup, while Brian Ellinson will skip Caulfield with Onesmoothoperator and instead return to Geelong to chase back-to-back wins in the Group 3 staying feature.
