Champion Irish trainer Willie Mullins will send out Absurde in the $5 million Caulfield Cup on Saturday.
The race will kick off Absurde’s third campaign down under and it provides a slight, and what could turn out to be a very important point difference from his last visit, in the gelding’s ultimate quest for Melbourne Cup glory.
Last year, Absurde finished fourth in the Irish St Leger and then won the Chester Stakes, both in August, before being put away for the Melbourne Cup meaning he went into the 3200m contest first-up after a brief two-month break from racing, a ‘time off’ period which included travelling from Europe to Australia.
He finished fifth in the 2024 edition of the Cup, only 1.70 lengths behind the bolter Knight’s Choice.
This year, Absurde again tackled the Irish St Leger … this time finishing third … but then all of the stable focus with regard to Absurde switched to his Melbourne campaign with that important change being the decision to put a race into the horses legs on Australian soil first to provide an arguably more measured lead-up to what would be Absurde’s third crack at the Melbourne Cup. (He finished seventh in the race in his first visit in 2023 in which also went into the Melbourne Cup without having a run in Australia beforehand).
And that is what has brought him to the Caulfield Cup on Saturday.
Again, he has had a two-month break since his last run (in the Irish St Leger as the Curragh), but this run will bring him on and with two-and-a-half weeks still left to go before Melbourne Cup day.
Saturday’s Caulfield cup will be Absurde’s sixth run since last year’s Melbourne Cup. The other five runs came in a period from March to August this year during which time Absurde scored one win and never finished out of the first three places over distances ranging from 2815m to 3419m.
Zac Purton (2023) and Kerrin McEvoy (2024) were the riders who partnered Absurde in his last two runs in the Melbourne Cup.
Ben Allen takes the Caulfield Cup ride on Saturday.
