British trainer Charlie Appleby made an enormous impact during the Melbourne spring carnival when a team of hitherto unheralded stayers cleaned up in most of the major Melbourne Cup support races, leaving the Australian gallopers with egg on their face.
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The Godolphin mentor saddled up horses like Qewy to win the Geelong Cup, Oceanographer to take the Lexus and Francis Of Assisi to win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington. In addition Qewy ran fourth in the Melbourne Cup and also won the Sandown Classic - not bad for a horse who had been jumping hurdles and fences the previous winter in the UK.
Appleby has shown he is not afraid to think outside the square, and he is doing so again on Saturday at Mornington when Godolphin will saddle up The Gold Trail in the Mornington Cup.
It is an innovative move because the Mornington Cup provides a saloon passage into the Caulfield Cup as the winner gets a guaranteed start in one of Australia's greatest handicaps.
Team Godolphin has won the Caulfield Cup with the outsider All The Good in 2008, trained by Saeed Bin Suroor, and went close last year with the Appleby-prepared Scottish, who beat all bar Jameka.
Now Newmarket-based Appleby is hoping to go one better, and believes The Gold Trail may be the horse to do it.
The son of Teofilo is a proven performer over 2400 metres - the Mornington Cup distance - having won over the trip earlier in his career and at his most recent start, when winning a handicap in Dubai.
Craig Williams takes the ride and supporters of the Blue Army can expect to see the champion jockey make plenty of use of the six-year-old entire as he looks to bring his proven stamina into play.
Appleby is delighted with the way the horse has travelled and settled in at Werribee.
"He is in good order. Going into the race he's drawn well in six of 16," he says.
"Craig is riding plenty of winners at the moment and has European experience which is what this horse needs. He's a proper mile-and-a-half horse and needs to be ridden positively and Craig is well adept for that and I think we go in to the race with a live chance and I'm looking forward to the race."
"It's the first international runner they've ever had at the meeting which is a full credit to the Melbourne Racing Club. It's a win and you're in to the Caulfield Cup which is why we've picked this race and aimed for it for some time."
"In respect to how it will pan out, we're looking at riding him positively from the gate. We're proven over the trip so we're going to go out there and be positive on the horse and I feel he will be doing his best work late."
