In his former career on the cricket field, Simon O’Donnell reached the pinnacle as part of Australia’s 1987 World Cup winning team.
Now he’s after a Cup played out on much different turf.
O’Donnell and Terry Henderson run OTI Racing which has an incredible four horses in the Melbourne Cup.
Gatewood
Peter Moody trains Brambles and Lidari for the OTI team with UK performer Gatewood and French-trained Au Revoir completing the quartet.
OTI’s pursuit of the Cup began a decade ago with European import Hugs Dancer who ran fifth in 2004.
Four years later Bauer was nosed out of the Cup by the Bart Cummings-trained Viewed.
More than 30 people share in the ownership of this year’s OTI Cup hopefuls with all bar Brambles sourced from Europe.
“There is a team of people that have contributed to getting these four horses to the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday,” O’Donnell said.
“Some people think you just jump on a plane and go over to Europe, grab that one and come back and win a Melbourne Cup.”
Despite having four runners in the Cup, O’Donnell said OTI would not be resting on its laurels.
“In sporting terms, in the old days, once you had a bit of success you went from the hunter to the hunted and that’s a whole different game,” O’Donnell said.
“It’s fantastic to have these horses in there, but it doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to do it next year or the year after.
“We’re always reassessing what we do, how we do it and after this race it won’t be any different.”
He doesn’t have a favourite, saying it won’t worry him what cap goes over the line first, providing it’s one of his.
Although only Lidari has drawn well in barrier 10 with the other three in gates 21 to 23, O’Donnell said he would go to the Cup feeling confident.
“I think the great thing about a 24 horse field and going into this race, there is not a connection, a trainer or jockey associated with a horse that isn’t positive,” he said.
