Multiple Group 1 winning Kiwi mare Silent Achiever has been ruled out of the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington next Tuesday and wasn’t among today’s forty second acceptances.
Silent Achiever is ruled out of the Melbourne Cup. Photo by Steve Hart.
Silent Achiever ran her best race of the Spring Carnival when third behind Adelaide and Fawkner in the Group 1 $3m Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley last Saturday, but trainer Roger James ruled out a Melbourne Cup start yesterday.
James considers that with 56.5kgs, his mare is too close in the weights to Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti who only has two kilograms more at 58.5kgs.
“I always thought she would get two miles (3200m), but now she is getting only 2kg from the Japanese horse (Admire Rakti) and it is a big task,” James told the Herald Sun.
“I think her ideal distance is a mile and a half (2400m).”
The Melbourne Cup has been a long term Spring Carnival target for Silent Achiever but James is content with not pushing ahead under the circumstances.
“I left home in August with her and I was pretty excited about having a Cup runner; I always thought she’d get two-miles but given the weight that she has been allotted and looking at the weights overall … I think it’s a big task and if we can find a better task for her she will do better,” James said.
“I think she’s the kind of mare that will bust her guts for you every time and [the Melbourne Cup] could be a pretty hard task for her.”
Caulfield Cup winner, Japanese stayer Admire Rakti heads up the forty second acceptances for the Melbourne Cup which is still top heavy with international raiders.
The Robert Hickmott trainer Green Moon and Cox Plate runner up Fawkner are second and third in the order of entry but the globetrotting pair of Red Cadeaux and Cavalryman are next.
And among the top twenty four are the international trained stayers Protectionist from Germany, the Roger Varian trained My Ambivalent, Johnny Murtagh’s two Royal Diamond and Mutual Regard, Seismos from the Marco Botti stable, the John Godsen trained Gatewood, Godolphin’s Willing Foe and the French stayer Au Revoir.
Trainers Darren Weir and Danny O’Brien are hoping luck will play into their hands over the next week as they sweat on their chances of making the final field with Prince Of Penzance and Caravan Rolls On.
The O’Brien trained Caravan Rolls On is number twenty-eight in the order of entry after receiving a 1.5kgs penalty for winning the Group 3 $300,000 Sportingbet Powerd By William Hill Geelong Cup (2400m) at Geelong on October 22.
While Prince Of Penzance from the Weir stable is number thirty following his 2kgs penalty he received for winning the Group 2 $250,000 Racing.com Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) at Moonee Valley last Saturday.
Trainer Tony McEvoy is in the same predicament with Big Memory who is twenty-nine in the order of entry after earning a 2kgs penalty Group 2 $200,000 Sportingbet Herbert Power Stakes (2400m) at Caulfield on October 11.
The Bart and James Cummings trained Precedence is in line to run in his fourth Melbourne Cup and is assured of start at number eighteen in the order of entry after narrowly missing out on making the final field of twenty-four last year.
In latest Melbourne Cup market order with Ladbrokes.com.au, Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti remains at the top of the betting at $4.80 ahead of the German visitor Protectionist at $7, Lucia Valentina at $7.50 and Fawkner at $9.
Others in the betting are Mutual Regard at $10, Red Cadeaux and Willing Foe at $19, with Araldo, Brambles, Junoob, The Offer and Who Shot Thebarman all at $21.
