The Group 3 $225,000 Geelong Cup (2400m) result on Wednesday will not change the Melbourne Cup prospects of French galloper Dunaden but is the last realistic chance of a Cup start for the rest of the field.
Dunaden is 14th, on the latest Melbourne Cup order of entry thus is guaranteed a start in the race that stops a nation on November 1.
The others have a long road with the winner of the Geelong Cup hoping for a penalty to get maximum promotion up the Melbourne Cup order of entry.
The 2008 Melbourne Cup runner up Bauer is 64th and would need to repeat his 2008 Geelong Cup win to get in.
The same team have aligned with Damien Oliver again the pilot as he was in the 2008 Geelong feature.
Bauer who missed over two years of racing due to injury, has only raced five times since running Viewed to a nose in 2008 Melbourne Cup.
He is yet to pass the first ballot clause of the 2011 Melbourne Cup being that from the 1st of August 2009 inclusive have won, or been placed 2nd or 3rd in an internationally recognised Group or Graded flat race run over 2300 metres or further.’
A Geelong Cup win would promote him to 42nd on the order of entry but a possible penalty added by Racing Victoria handicappers will lift him higher.
Highest in the order of entry outside Dunaden is the Anthony Freedman trained Above Average in 47th position.
A Geelong Cup win would lift his prizemoney but he would still be in the forties in the odrer and only a significant penalty will lift him in the realms of a guaranteed Melbourne Cup start.
It is the same story for the others including Showcause (51th), Tanby (56th) I’m Jake (54th), Back In Black (73rd), Spechenka (50th), Rebel Soldier (53rd), Hume (61st), Red Eye Special (66th) and Diyaraka (73rd).
One last chance for all these could come in the $250,000 Group 3 Lexus (2500m) at Flemington on October 29 which guarantees the winner a Melbourne Cup start.
That race will have much more depth than this year’s Geelong Cup.
