The lure of a return to Flemington, with the prospect of a guaranteed berth in this year’s Melbourne Cup, has won out with Robert Hickmott on Tuesday outlining plans for emerging stayer Revelare.
The five-year-old gelding, who is among 120 entries for the Melbourne Cup, will have his next start in the 2500-metre The Archer on September 13.
Revelare won over 2000m at Caulfield last Saturday and Hickmott was initially favouring staying at that track and trip for the Group 3 Foundation Cup, but has pivoted towards The Archer as a lead-in to The Bart Cummings (2500m), which also carries a Cup ballot exemption.
“He’ll probably gain more fitness out of this run going into the Cummings,” Hickmott said from Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s two for two here, and I’m not sure what the weather’s doing, but as a wet-weather track there’s not many better in Australia than this place.
“He’ll have that nice solid hit out over a mile-and-a-half, which will hopefully have him absolutely cherry for the Cummings.”
Hickmott, a two-time Melbourne Cup-winning trainer via Green Moon and Almandin, was on-hand to run his eye over the entries for this year’s race when they were revealed by the Victoria Racing Club’s General Manager of Racing, Leigh Jordon, at 1pm.
Champion mare Via Sistina headlines Revelare’s potential local rivals, while Treasurethe Moment, Aeliana, Sir Delius, Vauban and last year’s winner Knight’s Choice were also entered.
Knight’s Choice and Vauban, who is now trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, are among 14 horses who contested last year’s race who feature among this year’s entries.
Among them is Vauban’s former stablemate Absurde, who has finished seventh and fifth in the past two editions, and is one of 19 international nominations.
He is one of two entries for Irish trainer Willie Mullins, who is also represented by Hipop De Loire.
Joseph O’Brien, who like Hickmott has prepared two Melbourne Cup winners for leviathan owner Lloyd Williams, has two entries, headlined by favourite Al Riffa, while his father Aidan paid-up for three horses, including Scandinavia.
England, France, Japan, Germany and the United States are the other countries represented with Jordon revealing that legendary jockey John Velazquez had been booked to ride American entry Parchment Party, who owns a ballot exemption thanks to his win in the Belmont Gold Cup.
“The breadth of the nominations from England, Ireland, France, Germany, USA and Japan is probably the widest breadth of nominations we’ve had,” Jordon said.
“The depth is really strong, not just internationally but domestically. So, his year, the 165th running – the first time the Lexus Melbourne Cup has been run at $10 million – should be fantastic.”
The next significant development regarding this year’s Melbourne Cup comes on Tuesday 16 September, when Racing Victoria chief handicapper David Hegan will release the weights for the race that will be run on November 4.
