“I have been over here with him for three weeks, I’ve been hands-on with him every day and he looks fantastic.
“As a precautionary measure, we gave him a thorough veterinary examination and the vet said afterwards any trainer going into a Melbourne Cup would be thrilled to have a horse in his condition.
“So we have no issues with his health and fitness, he just hasn’t been showing it in his races.
“Sure, he has had a few thing go against him but he also doesn’t do himself any favours when he hangs, or mucks around and gets off the bit.”
James says with Mark Twain’s peculiarities in mind, he would have preferred to draw lower than his barrier six today so that jockey Jordan Childs could have got him in and against the rail to give him something to guide him around Bendigo, with a horse outside him to stop him wandering.
“But even from barrier six, I will be telling Jordan to get some cover and get him to relax,” James said.
“If he can do that, he is in the shape to go better than his form would indicate.”
The Bendigo Cup field contains few Melbourne Cup contenders so the Cambridge trainer is realistic about what he needs to see today to be getting his suit pressed for Flemington next Tuesday.
“He will need to win or go very, very well,” James said.
Mark Twain is rated a $19 chance today and $100 for the Melbourne Cup even though, after taking out those horses whose trainers have indicated they won’t start, the big Kiwi sits 21st or 22nd in the rankings – so as good as confirmed in the field.
The only other possible New Zealand-trained Cup contender next Tuesday is Auckland Cup winner Trav, who will need further withdrawals to make the field.
While Mark Twain’s Melbourne Cup dream could end today, the road to a summer of Group 1 targets starts for the James/Wellwood stable star Orchestral just a few hours earlier.
The outstanding mare will start in a trial restricted to black type-performed horses at 12.27pm before the first race at Pukekohe today.
“I think she in the best condition she has been going into a campaign over a year,” James said.
“Obviously this is only a trial but she is very well and the plan is to get her back racing and start aiming at the Group 1s here over the summer.
“The first big target will be the Zabeel Classic at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day but there are plenty of options for her after that.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
