Dunaden To Return For 2012 Melbourne Cup

It’s just a day after the 2011 Melbourne Cup but the trainer of champion Dunaden, Mikel Delzangles, says he’s already cast his mind forward to a possible 2012 title defence.

Like Americain this year, Dunaden could be set to return to Flemington Racecourse on the first Tuesday in November 2012 with ambitions of rare Melbourne Cup double.

Based on the will and determination that we saw from him this year few would doubt he has the ability to pull it off either.

Delzangles says the journey so far has been simply incredible and it’s a feeling he’d love to replicate.

“If he’s well he’ll come back here next year, we’d like that,” he said.

The Melbourne Cup win has also opened the doors to further international exposure, potentially even the Middle east.

“He might go to Dubai, there’s a race for stayers in March,” he said.

“But we’ll see…we’ll see how he recovers and after our winter we’ll decide.”

Many suspect that Dunaden’s win will further open the door to an avalanche of European runners, especially those trained in France

Delzangles says based on the last two years, who could blame them for coming?

“They should…it doesn’t mean they’re going to win every year …it’s a very hard race to win and I’m sure the Australian horses won’t let us,” he said.

It was a disappointing day for Australian trainers overall with only the Hawkes team with Niwot (8th) and Robert Hickmott with At First Sight (10th) making the money inside the 10 horses cut off.

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