Australian racing fans have become accustomed to seeing Damian Lane aboard overseas-trained runners in Spring Carnival majors, but he has changed allegiances for this Saturday’s Caulfield Cup.
The gun jockey will team with English stayer Wine Dark Sea in the 150th edition of the Group 1 handicap, which this year carries $6 million prizemoney.
Lane is chasing a second win in the 2400-metre handicap, his previous victory having come aboard Japanese entire Mer De Glace in 2019.
He also won that year’s Cox Plate aboard another Japanese visitor, Lys Gracieux, and has teamed with many from the Land Of The Rising Sun in the big spring features.
Saturday will be the first time he has ridden a UK-trained galloper in the Caulfield Cup and excited to team up the Harry Charlton-prepared son of Ulysses.
“He’s very much probably what we’re used to seeing from the English horses in terms of he can get up on speed and he can sustain a good run from a long way out,” Lane said.
“That’s indicative of what we’ve seen in the English horses that come out here over the years and hopefully that’s the case with him.”
The Caulfield Cup will be the 11th start for Wine Dark Sea, a Northern Hemisphere four-year-old, and first since a strong 1-1/2-length win in the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes (2671m) at Newbury on August 15.
That was Wine Dark Sea’s first taste of Stakes racing and was his third win from four starts in 2026.
Lane made the trip to Werribee last Thursday to have his first feel of the gelding, who has been in Australia since late last month, and liked what he felt.
“First impressions were good,” Lane said.
“He’s a very sensible horse, he seems to have settled in well, he moved well, he finished the work off well and there was nothing really negative to report.”
Wine Dark Sea owns the $7 second line of Caulfield Cup betting, behind only dominant last-start Turnbull Stakes winner Cosmic Crusader ($4.50), who was last week confirmed to be heading to the Caulfield Cup.
“Cosmic Crusader was not very welcome news, I would prefer he’s not there,” Lane said.
“But I did think the race lacked a little bit of depth this year and it would be a good chance for someone like a Wine Dark Sea.”
Lane also has first call on Wine Dark Sea in this year’s Melbourne Cup, but said a final commitment would be made after this weekend’s race.
Wine Dark Sea has 54.5kg in the Caulfield, the field for which will be finalised on Tuesday morning, and 56kg in the Melbourne Cup.
This could be Lane’s last Spring Carnival as a Melbourne-based jockey with the champion hoop making progression in his quest to become licensed in Japan, where he has ridden on short-term contracts for the past few years.
The Western Australian last week announced that he had passed the first stage of the application process and another exam to sit in January.
“Riding in Japan on a more permanent basis has been an ambition of mine for some time,” Lane said in a statement released after the examination results.
“While the chance of receiving a JRA licence is exciting, my immediate focus is on Australian racing and achieving the best possible results this spring carnival.”
