Italian born, French based trainer Alessandro Botti will be out to realise a long-held ambition when he saddles up Presage Nocturne in Tuesday’s G1 Melbourne Cup.
“It’s a dream, I’ve never won a Group 1 race,” Botti told the media at Werribee on Sunday morning.
“I hope that it’s the first time this week.”
Botti comes from a strong racing family. His cousin Marco is a successful trainer in England, who prepared Jakkalberry to finish third in the 2012 Melbourne Cup, while the following year, he had Dandino claim fifth place behind Fiorente.
“Before we organized the travel, I spoke with Marco,” Botti revealed. “Marco said to me that he has a good profile for this race.”
Presage Nocturne produced an eye-catching performance in the Caulfield Cup last time out, getting home strongly to run fourth under the guidance of Stephane Pasquier.
Pasquier will once again be in the saddle on Tuesday.
“I asked the jockey, the French jockey to respect the horse because we had a good meeting in eighteen days,” Botti said of the Caulfield Cup.
“If he could win the last race, he would have been very happy, but he finished very well and the jockey respected the horse, he wasn’t too hard, and I think the condition is better now than the last time.”
A lot of the pre-Cup discussion has revolved around the weather forecast and Botti admitted that he doesn’t want a deluge of rain to hit Flemington in the lead-up to the famous race.
“He’s won on good ground, and he’s won on soft ground,” Botti said.
“I hope that tomorrow it is not catastrophic for the weather, but the soft ground I think is no problem.”
Presage Nocturne received a perfect barrier, according to Botti, with the grey galloper to jump from gate nine next to the favourite, Half Yours.
Presage Nocturne is at $8.50 in Sportsbet’s market for the Melbourne Cup.
