Racing: Ocean Billy's trainer Bill Pomare unable to attend Melbourne Cup

Ocean Billy is aiming for the Melbourne Cup. Photo / Trish Dunell

One of racing's cult heroes has had a rude awakening from his Melbourne Cup dream.

Although Auckland Cup winner Ocean Billy, who resumes racing at Te Rapa's meeting today, could be heading to the race, his trainer Bill Pomare has accepted he can't go.

Pomare charmed the racing community when Ocean Billy won both the Waikato and Auckland Cups last season, the highlight of a career in racing for Pomare, who has overcome a troubled early life to arrive in the big time.

With a good horse and some six-figure stake money in the bank account, Pomare dared dream of sporting his trusty leather hat and 1970s moustache around the hallowed grounds of Flemington on that first Tuesday in November but realises with Covid back that won't be happening.

"The horse is still being aimed at the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups but with all the restrictions and everything else I won't be going," Pomare told the Weekend Herald.

"It is not so much because of the virus because I had my second vaccination the other day, just in time for my 73rd birthday. But it will just be hard to get there, get back and get around," he said.

"So at this stage he will be going to an Australian trainer and that will almost certainly be Chris Waller.

"Chris has offered to take the horse and I know I can trust him.

"I'm gutted, because I would love to be there and you wait a lifetime to have a horse you can take to races like this but we will just have to enjoy watching him from back here," Pomare added.

Pomare knows Ocean Billy can't beat two-time Telegraph winner Avantage or Tavi Mac today but says his old mate might not be as flat-footed as punters expect over the 1200m of the Foxbridge Plate.

"He is fit enough and ready and he might be in the finish.

"Then he might go to Hawke's Bay for one start or even two before Aussie," he said.

The Foxbridge Plate may come down to tempo and how the track is playing because while Avantage is the best horse in the race, she will have to cover more ground and navigate traffic.

Tavi Mac should be handy on the rail with a genuine tempo set up by Only In Jakarta and Supreme Heights.

If the inside holds together after it has been pounded by plenty of hooves, Tavi Mac will get his chance, but if the swoopers start to come into play as the meeting progresses, then it becomes advantage Avantage.

The day's other feature, the Breeders Stakes, sees Imperatriz into a remarkably short $1.50 considering the quality she takes on but she has looked a special filly at the trials after two unbeaten starts last season.

Also scheduled for Saturday are black-type races for the three-year-olds and the first juvenile race of the season at Whanganui, before Kiwi gallopers Elephant and The Chosen One take on the Aussies in the A$500,000 Feehan at The Valley in Melbourne.