While New Zealand won’t be adding to our proud Melbourne Cup record with a Kiwi-trained winner of the Melbourne Cup today, there are still plenty of New Zealanders with winning chances.
Expat trainer Chris Waller, who is now based in Sydney, trains five of the 24 starters – Buckaroo,Land Legend, More Felons, River Of Stars and Valiant King – with River Of Stars heavily backed to win the race by big punters yesterday.
Another former New Zealand trainer, Bjorn Baker, trains 40-1 chance Arapaho.
Kiwi superstar jockey James McDonald will ride Meydaan after having ridden the winners of over A$16 million ($18.3m) worth of races in the last 10 days, while former Hawkes Bay jockey Mick Dee, who is now based in Melbourne, rides Furthur.
Smokin Romans and Torranzino were both bred in New Zealand, while Athabascan was bred in France but is by the stallion Almanzor, who now stands at Cambridge Stud.
** Irish raider Al Riffa could start favourite in today’s cup race after being smashed in the betting yesterday, including one enormous bet of A$500,000 at an $8 win price.
The bet was placed at the Call of the Card event in Melbourne, in which serious punters challenge bookmakers for their best prices and Al Riffa was the horse who attracted the biggest bets, even though he has to carry the 59kg topweight.
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.
