Racing: Jukebox Jury enjoying himself

Jukebox Jury is the measuring stick in the Melbourne Cup. Photo / Thinkstock

More than a decade ago English trainer Mark Johnston brought a horse to the Melbourne Cup because of the fun he'd had on the race train back to town after seeing his first Melbourne Cup.

Any race that generates that much fun I have to be a part of, he reckoned.

A year later he brought Double Trigger, despite being disastrously handicapped at a stunning 60.5kg.

The result was similarly disastrous and it was a much more savvy Mark Johnston who fronted the press at the international conference at Werribee yesterday morning.

The message Johnston gave on his two new raiders Jukebox Jury and Fox Hunt was significantly more circumspect.

Johnston hadn't been in Melbourne many days, but declared he was delighted with what he saw of his two horses when he arrived recently from England.

"I was thrilled when Jukebox Jury gave a buck when asked to canter this morning. It tells me he's enjoying himself."

Johnston has learned so much about Melbourne Cups he can much more accurately guess the chances of his pair in tomorrow's big race,.

"If it was a group race in a small field in Europe you'd be confident we'd be in it, but is a different race.

"The size of the Melbourne Cup [24] is foreign to our horses and you go off much faster.

"Then, for whatever reason you slow up to what is exactly the opposite.

"That can break a horse up in the first straight."

When asked which was the better of his two horses Johnston was again thoughtful.

"If they ran the race in lanes as a two-horse, Jukebox Jury would be clearly the best horse, but Melbourne Cups are not run that way.

"Fox Hunt is a very tough horse. He tends to have a flat spot mid-race and that actually suits the way they run Melbourne Cups.

"He will be finishing on again at the end."

Johnston is clearly in the corner of his Fox Hunt jockey Silvestre De Sousa.

"He's the ex-champion Brazilian apprentice who came to England a couple of years ago.

"A season ago I started to notice him riding horses for small trainers and no disrespect to them, but he was winning races on horses he shouldn't be able to win on.

"I got him riding a couple for me and now he's challenging for the premiership.

"He's only four behind the leader with only a week to go and he didn't want to come down here and ride this horse and I said: 'Listen, the Melbourne Cup is A$6.2 million - that's more than all those other European races you've won on'. "I talked him into it and you'll be impressed with his riding.

"He takes on any challenge and although he's not tall, he's strong. He's a pocket dynamo."

Latest Melbourne Cup Market: $4.60 Americaine, $8 Dunaden, $11 Jukebox Jury, Lucas Cranach; $12 Niwot, $13 At First Sight, $17 Mouryan, $21 Illo, $16 Modun, Moyenne Corniche, Tullamore; $31 Fox Funt, Lost In The Moment; $36: Glass Harminium, Manighar, Unusual Suspect, Red Cadeaux; $41: Drunken Sailor Precedence, $51: Shamrocker, $81: Hawke island, $101: Saptapadi, $126: The Verminator, Older Than Time.