Ballarat trainer Simon Morrish cannot remember the last time he has had two runners nominated for a stakes race.
That is the case at Flemington on Saturday with Chouxting The Mob and Mental Telepathy entered for The Andrew Ramsden which guarantees the winner a start in the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
Chouxting The Mob is safely in Saturday’s line-up if connections elect to start while Mental Telepathy arrives from New Zealand on Wednesday night and will need to please Morrish to start.
“I could have two runners, I could have one runner or I might not have one at all,” Morrish said.
“The lure of a Melbourne Cup start, it’s a great marketing tool by the VRC.”
Chouxting The Mob is also nominated for the Sky Heights Stayers Final at Cranbourne on Friday night and Morrish would prefer that option saying the weight-for-age conditions at Flemington are against the stayer.
“At the weights he can’t win on Saturday,” Morrish said.
“If it was a handicap he’d be getting 15kg off the topweights, but racing can throw up funny results as we saw with a 150-to-one winner in Adelaide on the weekend.
“There’s 16 or 17 in the ownership and the pragmatist in me says you’re wasting your time, but am I there to deny them that dream.
“That’s what everyone races horses for in Australia, to have a crack at the Melbourne Cup.”
The 2800m-race is named for the late Victoria Racing Club chairman who had interests in two Cup winners, Gurner’s Lane (1983) and Brew (2000).
Chouxting The Mob races with three screws in a hind leg because of an injury which kept him off the scene for 13 months.
In nine runs since returning in January, Chouxting The Mob has won three races which Morrish says, with some luck, could have been five.
“I don’t know where his ceiling is,” Morrish said.
“Damien Oliver won his maiden on him at Geelong one day and said he was a big dumb bugger, but there was something about him he liked.
“And when Ollie says something like that, you listen.”
Mental Telepathy lined up for Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman at Te Rapa on Saturday finishing fourth to Pakenham Cup winner Big Mike.
For Mental Telepathy to take his place on Saturday, everything needs to fall into place.
“It’s going to be a tough week for him,” Morrish said.
“He raced over 2100 metres on Saturday, he’s got to get on a plane on Wednesday, get over here, settle in, and back up within seven days.
“It’s a hell of an ask but the owner wants to have a crack and who am I to say no.”
