Premiership winning trainer Peter Moody is looking for his first Melbourne Cup trophy when he saddles up two runners, Brambles and Lidari, in ‘The Race That Stops The Nation’ at Flemington on Tuesday.
Trainer Peter Moody will saddle up two runners in the Melbourne Cup, Lidari, white cap, and Brambles, blue cap, above finishing 2nd and 3rd in the Turnbull Stakes. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Moody said that it would be extremely exciting if Brambles or Lidari could be first up the Flemington straight at the finish of the Group 1 $6m Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m).
“It would be extremely exciting. I would love to win a Melbourne Cup as the next person, all we can is but try,” Moody told Racing Ahead.
“It is always a pipedream as a young person growing up, it’s exciting, there is a lot of tradition associated with it obviously and it is the race of Australia and to be recognised with that it would great to be on my resume.”
“But there is only one a year, Bart’s had a field day for the last five or six decades and made it his own as had a few others so it hasn’t been spread far and wide but you only get one bite of the cherry each year and it’s getting harder and harder with these northern hemisphere horses coming down for the locals, but you can just wind them up fit and well and hope they are good enough.”
Moody has reported that Brambles has pulled up well after finishing ninth in the Group 1 $1m Longines Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) at Flemington last Saturday.
“He needed a good gallop and we knew we were going to be doing the wrong thing facing that strong head wind, the horse needed a good gallop that day and the idea was to take the edge off of him with the view of him settling better tomorrow,” Moody said of Brambles effort in the Mackinnon Stakes.
“He came through the run super.”
And Moody is happy with the condition of his other Melbourne Cup runner Lidari.
“They went under saddle here yesterday morning, he and Lidari and they just had a quieter morning this morning obviously and a trip down to the beach. Both came home with a smile on their face and had a ply in the sand roll. So as long as we see them similar tomorrow we will go to the races happy knowing that they are both fit and well.”
Lidari hasn’t been far off the pace at his last couple of runs with a second to Lucia Valentina in the Group 1 $500,000 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 4 followed by a two and quarter lengths sixth to Admire Rakti in the Group 1 $3m Crown Golden Ale Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on October 18.
Latest Melbourne Cup market order: $6 Admire Rakti, $7.50 Lucia Valentina, $8 Signoff, Fawkner, Protectionist, $11 Mutual Regard, $19 Red Cadeaux, $21 Who Shot Thebarman, $26 Cavalryman, Junoob, Willing Foe, Araldo, $41 My Ambivalent, $61 Brambles, Opinion, $71 Gatewood, $81 Seismos, Au Revoir, Lidari, $91 Royal Diamond, $101 Precedence, $201 Mr O’Ceirin, Unchain My Heart.
