Three time Melbourne Cup runner-up Red Cadeaux will return to Melbourne to compete during the Autumn Carnival for the first time when he contests the Group 1 $1m Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 14.
Red Cadeaux, above running second to Dunaden in the 2011 Melbourne Cup, will return to Flemington for the Australian Cup. Photo by Taron Clarke.
Racing Victoria’s International Recruitment Officer Leigh Jordon confirmed that prominent Newmarket trainer Ed Dunlop has chosen an Australian Autumn Carnival campaign over the Dubai World Cup Carnival and will head to Sydney for ‘The Championships’ after the Australian Cup.
Jordon said that Dunlop had informed him that Red Cadeaux had entered quarantine in England at the end of last week and would arrive in Melbourne on February 14 where he will head to the Werribee International Horse Centre to complete his quarantine period.
“The horse entered quarantine at Newmarket in England on Friday and will arrive in Melbourne on 14 February where he’ll complete a mandatory quarantine period at the Werribee International Horse Centre,” Jordon told Racing.com.
“Although he has exclusively contested the two-mile Emirates Melbourne Cup in his four previous visits to Melbourne, Red Cadeaux has been placed in a Dubai World Cup over 2000m so we expect him to be ultra competitive in the Australian Cup.
“Red Cadeaux has become such a popular horse in Australia via his heroic Melbourne Cup performances and we’re thrilled that Victorian racing fans will have the opportunity to see him campaign in Melbourne for a fifth time.”
Red Cadeaux has competed at the highest level all around the world but is best known to Australian racegoers for his four appearances in the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington during the Spring Carnival which resulted in three seconds in 2011, 2013 and 2104 and an eighth in 2012.
And while the tough stayer has performed creditably at most of the major racing centres around the globe with numerous Group 1 placings, his only Group 1 victory came with a win in the 2012 HK$15m Longines Hong Kong Vase (2400m) at Sha Tin.
At his latest Melbourne Cup effort French jockey Gerald Mosse pushed Red Cadeaux to the front at the 400m searching for that elusive victory in the ‘Race That Stops The Nation’ but was reined in by German galloper Protectionist who ran away to score a convincing four lengths win.
In early Australian Cup betting Red Cadeaux is marked at $26 with Protectionist heading the market order at $3.50.
