Imported German stayer Illo and last year’s Moonee Valley Cup winner Precedence spearhead Bart Cummings’ assault on a 13th Melbourne Cup win.
A last-start stakes winner in his homeland, Illo will join the Cummings team on September 24 while Precedence, who was eighth in last year’s Melbourne Cup, resumed last weekend at Caulfield.
Cummings, 83, has entered five horses for the $6.2 million Cup which will be run on November 1.
The Hall Of Fame trainer, who last won the race in 2008 with Viewed, has also nominated maiden four-year-old Cosmonaut, last-start Sydney winner Tamanu Park and emerging five-year-old Pegembak.
There were 163 entries for the 2011 Melbourne Cup when nominations closed on Thursday.
Headlining the 25 international entries is defending Melbourne Cup champion Americain who will be striving to join Archer, Rain Lover, Think Big and Makybe Diva as the only horses to win in successive years.
Ireland’s dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Dermot Weld has entered highly-rated last-start Ballyroan Stakes winner Sense Of Purpose and the unheralded Galileo’s Choice who, like Weld’s 1993 Cup winner Vintage Crop, was a winner over jumps two starts ago.
AAP TURF
