Racing: Bold bids for Melbourne Cup start

Tim Clark and Thinkin' Big win the Ladbrokes Classic on Caulfield Cup Day last month. Photo / Getty Images

Tuesday's Melbourne Cup field could be in for a significant shake-up this Saturday with two horses that have yet to even pass the first ballot conditions for the race, set to make bold 11th-hour bids to secure spots in the field.

In total, there are 47 horses remaining in the hunt for the $7.3 million purse and only three of those — Azuro, Sixties Groove and Thinkin' Big — have not met the qualifying conditions for the race.

But both unqualified horses Thinkin' Big and Sixties Groove will have plenty of support from punters as they attempt to force their way into Tuesday's feature when they race at Flemington on Saturday, reports Racing.com.

For Thinkin' Big, a win in the Victoria Derby — a race for which he is hot favourite — is likely to be enough for the three-year-old to be paid-up for on Saturday evening for next Tuesday's big one while the market for Saturday's Lexus Stakes suggests Sixties Groove might be one of the Cup's unlikely bolters.

Sixties Groove, who is one of seven stayers trained by Darren Weir to remain in contention for a Melbourne Cup start, is to be ridden by Craig Williams on Saturday and already has had support in the early markets, firming into single figures after drawing barrier four for Saturday's race.

Sixties Groove, who was purchased by Australian Bloodstock last year, won two races in Melbourne over the winter before a short break. He resumed with a placing at Ballarat in September before taking the Moe Cup earlier this month.

Sixties Groove is one of 13 horses to contest the Lexus, with Weir also running Gallic Chieftain and Yogi in the final ballot-free race into the Melbourne Cup.

Meanwhile, trainer Chris Waller has confirmed his Metropolitan Handicap winner Patrick Erin was still in the race for a Melbourne Cup start despite being scratched from yesterday's Bendigo Cup with a minor elevation in temperature.

"Whilst his temperature remained within normal parameters, it was decided to err on the side of caution and scratch him from today's event," the Waller release read.

"We will take a blood sample from Patrick Erin tomorrow (Thursday) and that will determine if he runs on Saturday at Flemington in the Lexus Stakes with the view of qualifying for the 2018 Melbourne Cup."

Meanwhile, in other Cup news Ryan Moore, who has won some of Europe's great staying races for owner Lloyd Williams, will get the chance to ride a Melbourne Cup winner for him after being confirmed as riding The Cliffsofmoher.

Moore, who teamed up with the Williams-owned Order Of St George for wins in the 2016 Ascot Gold Cup and the following year's Irish St Leger, knows The Cliffsofmoher well having ridden him into second place in the English Derby.

The Cliffsofmoher turned in a great Melbourne Cup trial in his first run in the country when third in the Caulfield Cup for jockey Hugh Bowman, but even so, he could go into next Tuesday's Cup as trainer Aidan O'Brien's third-best chance of taking his first Melbourne Cup.

O'Brien also trains the favourite Yucatan, who is to be ridden by James McDonald, as well as the lightweight Rostropovich.

Rostropovich ran fifth for Moore in last Saturday's Cox Plate but the rider cannot make his Cup weight of 51kg. The champion English jockey, who is the No. 1 rider for O'Brien's Ballydoyle operation, has ridden once for Williams in the Melbourne Cup when Bondi Beach ran 13th in 2016.