The Weekly Wrap

This week's wrap has an unashamedly Australian flavour, not simply because the Melbourne Cup has long been my favourite race of the year, meaning that in racing terms it's finally Christmas, but also by dint of the fact that if you're in Melbourne for the week leading up to the Cup then it's impossible not to be swept up in the sheer excitement of it all. So before the medication kicks in, I'll try to give you a taste of events here over the last few days ahead of retiring to my darkened hotel room to count down the hours before I can board the bus to Flemington.

Still King Of The Turf
Frankie Dettori has arrived from Del Mar, while 'Magic Man' Joao Moreira, Olivier Peslier and Hugh Bowman, aka Mr Winx, will all be in action at Flemington today, but even these star names have been eclipsed by the presence in Melbourne of Lester Piggott.

He won his first of nine Derbys in 1954 on Never Say Die at the age of 18, but Piggott, who turned 82 on Sunday, appears to be indefatigable.

A guest of Terry Henderson and OTI Racing, he has kept a hectic social schedule since arriving in Australia, attending the apprentice school, Breakfast With The Stars, the Carbine Club lunch and Derby day, and was given star billing in the Melbourne Cup Parade on Monday. Looking like he'd just stepped off the set of a Steve McQueen movie, Piggott glided through the streets of Melbourne's CBD in an open-top sports car, wearing aviator shades with an air of coolness that weighing-room successors half his age would be happy to be able to pull off.

No matter where you've been lucky enough to go racing in the world, there is simply nothing to match the Melbourne Cup Parade. City centre streets are closed on Monday morning to allow the procession to take place from Bourke Street into Swanston Street, and ending in Federation Square. The stirring bagpipes of the Melbourne City Pipe Band lead the way as behind them come stilt walkers, stunt cyclists, school children, Maori dancers, the connections of all the Melbourne Cup runners in individual cars, and, best of all, former winners of the Cup, which this year included 24-year-old Might And Power (1997), 25-year-old Rogan Josh (1999), 21-year-old Brew (2000), Efficient (2007) and Prince Of Penzance (2015). Other racing nations take note: this brilliant spectacle should be copied.

Mullins The Master
There's been plenty of buzz about the Willie Mullins runners for today's big race but nobody is really sure which one to buzz loudest about. Retired jump jockey David Casey, overseeing the preparation of Wicklow Brave (GB) (Beat Hollow {GB}), Max Dynamite (Fr) (Great Journey {JPN}) and Thomas Hobson (GB) (Halling) until the trainer arrived in Melbourne at the weekend, was tight-lipped at the Breakfast With The Stars morning at Werribee as to which of the trio has been exciting him the most. The trainer himself won't be drawn, except to say that lovely old Wicklow Brave has surprised him all season and has a great draw in stall eight. Mullins was, however, in the Max Dynamite car during the Melbourne Cup parade, while it has been reported that Joao Moreira “begged” to ride Thomas Hobson, who scraped into the race on Saturday after Jon Snow (NZ) was withdrawn on veterinary advice.

Interviewed in tandem on Friday, trainers Darren Weir and Chris Waller, the dominant forces in Victoria and New South Wales respectively, agreed that they were each happy that the other wasn't planning a move to their home state. Aidan O'Brien, whose record-breaking Group 1 tally could climb higher still if Johannes Vermeer (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) were to win the Cup, perhaps wishes that Mullins would stick to his 'day job' as a National Hunt trainer as the jumps champion has a formidable team representing him today.

A Largely Foreign Field
With 11 of the 23-strong field (since the scratching of Who Shot Thebarman) being trained overseas, there is once again a strong international feel to the Melbourne Cup. This is a double-edged sword for the Australians. On one hand, it is a huge credit to the pulling power of the 'race that stops the nation' that so many European horses and their connections should make the long and expensive trip at the end of the northern hemisphere Flat season to be involved in such an occasion, and on the other it must be a source of frustration there is a good chance each year that the Cup will go to a horse that is unfamiliar to local racegoers.

This year's field breaks down to nine Irish-bred horses, six bred in Britain, three in Australia, two in France, two in New Zealand and one in Germany. Through the stamina-laden genes of Monsun (Ger), the relatively small breeding nation of Germany has played a significant part in recent Melbourne Cup history, with winners Fiorente (Ire), Protectionist (Ger) and Almandin (Ger) all having been sired by the late Gestut Schlenderhan stallion.

Defending champion Almandin is favourite to strike again this year but is now considered to be a local, having left Schlenderhan's private trainer Jean-Pierre Carvalho in 2014 to join Robert Hickmott's stable for the Lloyd Williams team.

Roundhill's Australian Success
Lawman (Fr) has already sired the winner of a major staying race via his 2016 St Leger-winning son Harbour Law (GB) and he has Libran (Ire) to represent him in the Melbourne Cup.

A credit to his initial trainer, the late Alan Swinbank, who had a gift for educating young stayers, Libran won five races in Britain before being bought for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Australia and switched to the Sydney stable of Chris Waller. Libran has continued to build on his fine record, with four stakes wins in Australia, including the G2 Schweppes Chairman's H. He also has some fancy connections, as one of the members of his syndicate of owners is VRC chairman Amanda Elliott, who picked barrier seven for the 6-year-old gelding at the Melbourne Cup draw on Saturday night.

Libran's success is an extra feather in the cap of Ireland's Roundhill Stud. Breeders Bobby Donworth and Honor Corridan have also enjoyed success in Australia with Puissance De Lune (Ire) (Shamardal), a dual Group 2 winner for Darren Weir who now stands at Adam Sangster's Swettenham Stud and has his first yearlings for sale this season.

When Will We See Your Like Again?
Despite being a pom, I make no secret of the fact that my heart is in the Highlands and the Scottish omens have been looming large all week. It started with George McNeil, guest speaker at Friday's Carbine Club lunch, rounding off a rip-roaring speech with a pitch-perfect version of 'Flower of Scotland'.

Borders boy Iain Jardine has brought the first Scottish-trained challenger for the Melbourne Cup, Nakeeta (GB) (Sixties Icon {GB}), and his English-based compatriots Hugo Palmer and Hughie Morrison also have strongly-fancied contenders for the race in Wall Of Fire (Ire) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}) and Marmelo (GB) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}).

Morrison has perhaps enhanced his chances by booking Hugh Bowman, who featured in an old TV clip this week playing the bagpipes. Winx's jockey divulged that learning to become a piper was the hardest challenge of his life but that he progressed to such a level that he had represented his school in the Nova Scotia International Tattoo. Disappointingly, Bowman took the soft option of being in a sports car with Morrison during the Melbourne Cup Parade rather than reacquainting himself with the bagpipes and marching up front with the Melbourne City Pipe Band.

Nakeeta's followers have arrived en masse in Melbourne and have been sporting rather fetching tartan trousers. “We were going to wear kilts but we were worried that it was a bit windy,” said one of the tartan army.

Let's hope that a few minutes after 4pm Melbourne time today, McNeil and co will again be in full voice. Altogether now, 'O Flower of Scotland…'