The 2015 Goodwood Cup will be held in the United Kingdom on Friday morning (AEST) and the race is set to feature a number of horses that are a chance to make the trip to Australia to contest the 2015 Melbourne Cup.
Simenon is one of a number of 2015 Melbourne Cup hopefuls that is set to contest the Goodwood Cup. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
The Goodwood Cup has produced Melbourne Cup runners Cavalryman, Brown Panther, Mount Athos, Lost In The Moment and Fox Hunt in the past few years and Racing Victoria International Recruitment Manager Leigh Jordon revealed yesterday that Trip To Paris, Angel Gabrial, Big Orange, Pallasator, Scotland and Simenon could all head to Australia for ‘the race that stops a nation’ if they perform well in the Goodwood Cup.
“The Goodwood Cup is obviously a key race,” Jordon told Racing Ahead.
“There are horses like Trip For Paris, also trained by Ed Dunlop, that won the Ascot Gold Cup.
“Angel Gabrial would need to win the race to come down, he is owned by Marwan Koukash and he is keen to bring the horse down, but he really needs to win the race.
“Big Orange is there who won the Group 2 Princess Of Wales Stakes over 2400 metres at Newmarket and they are keen to come.
“A horse called Pallasator that has only had one run this season could also be a chance and Andrew Balding’s horse Scotland and there is also Simenon in there as well.
“These sort of carnivals are going to shape the sort of horses that are going to come down.”
There were a number of European stayers that contested the 2014 Melbourne Cup, but Jordon confirmed that three-time Melbourne Cup runner-up Red Cadeaux will be the only horse return to Australia for the Group 1 event and he believes that we will see a new group of Northern Hemisphere stayers in the 2015 edition of the Melbourne Cup.
“I think this is going to be the pattern because it is a bit of a funny year and Red Cadeaux is the only horse that could come back from last year,” Jordon said.
“All the other horses that came out last year have either retired, been injured or stayed in Australia and usually you see from year on year there would be three or four come back.
“Red Cadeaux being the only horse that could do that means that it is a fresh bunch.”
Trip To Paris is currently available at 2015 Melbourne Cup odds of $26 with Ladbrokes and he is the most fancied of the Goodwood Cup runners while Fame Game ($13) remains a clear favourite from Hartnell ($17) and Mongolian Khan ($17).
