Trainer James Cummings has confirmed that Precedence will go straight into the 2014 Melbourne Cup after he recovered well from being galloped on in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Cup (2500m) on Saturday.
Precedence will have his fourth Melbourne Cup start in the 2014 edition of the race at Flemington next Tuesday. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Precedence was well-backed in the lead-up to the Moonee Valley Cup, but he was galloped on at the 400 metre mark by Albonetti and was unable to make up any ground in the final stages of the race to finish a disappointing fifth.
Cummings told Sky Racing HQ this morning that his vet told him that Precedence would recover from the minor superficial damage quickly and he said that the Zabeel gelding remained on track to run in his fourth Melbourne Cup next Tuesday.
“He got galloped on, on his off hind,” Cummings said.
“The horse came down and clipped him quiet badly and it has never really happened to him before in a lengthy racing career.
“He is alright.
“My vet said that he would be as good as gold after 24 or 48 hours and the boys are really happy with him this morning.
“He will be out to do a bit of work tomorrow and we will take him to the beach to put a little bit of variety into his preparation.
“He is looking terrific and he should be ready to run a big race for us next start.”
Precedence would need to improve significantly on his Moonee Valley Gold Cup effort to be any chance in the Melbourne Cup, but Cummings is adamant that the nine-year-old would have finished a lot closer to the winner Prince Of Penzance if he had not been galloped on at a key point of the race.
Cummings said that he has been happy with the form and trackwork of Precedence and he remains confident that the veteran stayer can produce another solid effort in the Melbourne Cup after finishing 8th behind Americain in 2010, 11th behind Dunaden in 2011 and 9th behind Green Moon in 2012.
“We feel like it would have had a physiological effect on him and we are certain that he would have finished off a lot stronger if that hadn’t happened,” Cummings said.
“We had to take that on faith; we were confident that he had been working well before the Moonee Valley Cup and his form had been solid.
“We are pushing on to the Melbourne Cup with a horse that we are still confident will equit himself very well.”
Precedence is currently available at the lengthy 2014 Melbourne Cup odds of $67 to give Bart Cummings his 13th victory in ‘the race that stops a nation’.
