The chairman of the Melbourne Racing Club has hit back at suggestions this year's renewal of the $3 million race will lack quality and drama because it has no star galloper and may not field a capacity 18 horses.
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Mike Symons acknowledges that the 2400 metre contest lost some of its lustre when top weights Highland Reel and Order of St George stayed in Europe to contest the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe in early October and Godolphin opted to miss the event with Hartnell so he could concentrate on the Cox Plate.
But, argues Symons, the Cup is still a compelling contest with a host of group 1 winners and performers as well as an intriguing set of international raiders.
"We still have a very deep field," Symons said during a panel discussion on RSN's Jury Duty programme on Monday morning.
"Last year's Derby and Oaks winners (Tarzino and Jameka) are in the race, so is Set Square (the previous year's VRC Oaks winner).
"Aidan O'Brien is coming (his runner is the Royal Ascot winner Sir Isaac Newton) and we also have the last start winner of the group 1 Metropolitan, Sir John Hawkwood as well as European horses Scottish, Exospheric and Articus". The latter is a German horse trained by Andreas Wohler, who saddled Protectionist to win the Melbourne Cup in 2014).
"People are spending a lot of money (on imported horses) to try and win our great race. Try and win it _ its still very hard to win," Symons said.
As evidence for their argument critics have pointed not just to the absence of Highland Reel and Order of St George (second and third in the Arc behind stablemate Found), Hartnell and other gallopers, but also to the fact that the seemingly out-of-form Preferment, from the Chris Waller stable, is due to carry the number one saddlecloth.
But in the race's defence, Preferment is a four-time group 1 winner including over the Cup's 2400 metre distance while the second top weight, Our Ivanhowe, won the Doomben Cup (group 1) during the Brisbane carnival and ran third in last year's Caulfield Cup.
The next three in the racebook are the European raiders Scottish, Exospheric and Sir Isaac Newton.
While none has won at the elite level in Europe, the latter two in particular have not been disgraced in group 1 company.
Sir Isaac Newton, who cost an eye-watering 3.6 million Euros as a yearling, ran fourth in Europe's midsummer middle distance championship race, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, behind Highland Reel. He filled the same position in the group 1 Juddmonte International behind Postponed, who, until his fifth in the Arc was widely regarded as Europe's leading middle distance galloper.
Exospheric won the group 2 Jockey Club Cup at Newmarket early this year and finished alongside Sir Isaac Newton in the Juddmonte.
Scottish's form ties in well with them too as he beat Exospheric in a race at Ayr in Scotland last year, and showed his well being with a win in group 3 company at York last time.
Symons does concede, however, that the fact that the Caulfield Cup winner can be penalised if he goes on to run in the Melbourne Cup could be a deterrence factor, particularly for European trainers who fear their horse might get too much weight for the Flemington contest as a result of a win at Caulfield.
"We would like the penalty to be eliminated, " says Symons.
The MRC made an attempt to have the penalty scrapped a few years ago but failed.
The conditions of the Melbourne Cup say that any horse that wins a handicap race over a staying distance in the lead-up to the great race can be rehandicapped. The Caulfield Cup falls into this category while a weight for age race like the Cox Plate does not.
In the past 20 years, only Ethereal (2001) and Might and Power (1997) have won at Caulfield then at Flemington. Viewed (2009) and Dunaden (2012) both won Caulfield Cups the year after they had won the Melbourne Cup. Makybe Diva in 2005 won the Cox Plate and then her third Melbourne Cup, while So You Think (2010) won the Cox Plate and then ran third in that year's Melbourne Cup.
