Mike Moroney is one of only four trainers engaged in this year’s Melbourne Cup to have won the race before and said there are similarities between Emissary and the horse he won it with 22 years ago.
The Flemington horseman said Emissary displays a similar sense of timing to Brew.
A Northern Hemisphere five-year-old, Emissary booked his 2022 Melbourne Cup spot with a win in the $500,000 Group 3 Geelong Cup (2400m) on October 19.
It was a victory that came at big odds, but one that was not entirely unexpected and while Moroney said next year probably presented his best chance at winning the race, but having a crack this year had its advantages.
“He’s got a sense of timing similar to Brew,” Moroney said at Saturday night’s barrier draw.
“He’s around a year younger than Brew when he won his Melbourne Cup. He’s just mature enough to be a two miler but I think he’ll be better again next year.
“We do think a lot of the horse and we think by this time next year he might be lumping around 56 or 57kg in a Melbourne Cup, so we might as well have a go when we’ve got 51.5kg, which is a dangerous sort of weight for a horse with his class.”
Emissary’s Geelong Cup win came three starts after first-up success in the Listed Heatherlie Handicap (1700m), which are his only two wins in Australia, but he did place in a Group 3 Hotham Handicap (2500m) 12 months ago and the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m) earlier this year.
The son of Kingman will be ridden by Patrick Moloney and jump from barrier three, which Moroney said had its disadvantages but he did not want to complain about drawing a low barrier in a 3200-metre race.
“He’s not a horse that can really use barrier three, but the shortest way around is close to the rails,” Moroney said.
“He’s not a horse that goes forward, he’s got to get into a rhythm and relax, but in saying that might just mean we can relax a little bit closer than what we would if we’d drawn out.”
Emissary is one of only three last-start winners in the Melbourne Cup, joined by last week’s Bendigo Cup (2400m) winner High Emocean and Deauville Legend, who is coming off a win in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes (2385m) at York on August 17.
