European-breds Dominate Melbourne Cup Entries

Eighty of the 123 horses nominated for this year's G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup were bred in Europe. Only 18 of that group are still in training in either Britain, Ireland or France.

Aidan O'Brien, who has not had a runner in the race since 2020, when Tiger Moth (Ire) finished runner-up to Twilight Payment (Ire), trained by his son Joseph, has six entered, led by the G2 Queen's Vase winner Illinois (Ire). Meanwhile his fellow Irishman Willie Mullins is planning to send back last year's favourite, the recent G2 Lonsdale Cup winner Vauban (Fr), along with Absurde (Fr) and Hipop De Loire (Fr).

Dual Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Dermot Weld has entered Harbour Wind (Ire), while Henry de Bromhead has nominated the Ebor winner Magical Zoe (Ire). Jessica Harrington could be represented by Kinesiology (GB).

Juddmonte's Arrest (GB) is in the mix for John and Thady Gosden, while Andrew Balding has put forward Night Sparkle (Ire) and Relentless Voyager (GB). Harry Eustace and Brian Ellison complete the list of British trainers and have entered Sea King (GB) and Onesmoothoperator respectively, while the sole French-trained entry is Delius (GB) for Jean-Claude Rouget. A total of 20 horses from outside Australasia have been entered, including two from Japan – Shonan Bashitto (Jpn) and Warp Speed (Jpn). 

Of the 80 who were bred in Europe, 48 carry an Irish suffix, 22 were born in Britain and 10 in France. The Australian and New Zealand breeding programmes are represented by 19 entries each, while three entries carry a USA suffix and two were bred in Japan.

Among the European expats now trained in Australia are the Group 1-winning mares Via Sistina (Ire), Poptronic (GB), and Place Du Carrousel (Ire), who respectively sold for 2.7m gns, 1.4m gns, and €4.025m at last year's breeding stock sales. 

Ciaron Maher, who won the 2022 Melbourne Cup with Gold Trip (Fr) when training in partnership with David Eustace, has 16 entries for this year. They include the former Sir Michael Stoute-trained Circle Of Fire (GB), who was bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II, and three-year-old Sayedaty Sadly (Ire), who was fifth in the Derby when trained by Andrew Balding. 

Sadly missing from the list of entries is Crystal Black (Ire), who is unbeaten in four starts this year for trainer Ger Keane, including the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot and the G3 Ballyroan Stakes.

“He's had a bit of a setback and is going to go on his winter break,” said Keane of the six-year-old.

“It's nothing serious, but you have to go by him and he wouldn't ready for it. He got a viral infection and his bloods were very low and he wasn't himself. You'd have to be pushing him to run in it, so it wouldn't be the right thing to do and it wouldn't be fair on the horse.

“It's only a minor setback, so we'll put him away for the winter and see where we go next year.”