Back-to-back Cups dream

CROSS COUNTER is likely to chase successive Melbourne Cup victories, trainer Charlie Appleby says.

Appleby has also revealed that Joseph O’Brien’s triumph last season with Rekindling had formed a critical part of Tuesday’s Flemington coup.

Elated at delivering the Cup for the first time to Godolphin patron Sheikh Mohammed, Appleby said lightly raced Cross Counter had the perfect profile to continue racing internationally.

“He’s a young horse, and it was only the eighth run of his career there yesterday,” Appleby said. “Like any of our horses that run, we’ll just let the dust settle and make a plan for him in the new year of where we’re gonna be. But he’s a gelded son of Teofilo, so racing’s going to be his game.

“As he’s proven already, the international stage is for him. So I’m hopeful we will be back next year. They’ll all [Godolphin horses] fly out on Sunday and he’ll winter in Dubai. We’ll formulate a plan in the new year. I’d strongly imagine he’ll be back here next year.”

In the 157-year history of the Cup only four horses — Archer, Rain Lover, Think Big and Makybe Diva (three in a row) — have won Australian racing’s greatest prize in successive years.

Appleby admitted O’Brien’s effort in snaring the Cup with sparingly raced northern hemisphere three-year-old Rekindling had caught his eye.

“This is our third trip down and we’ve learned each year a little more about we needed to bring down,” Appleby said.

“But no doubt about it, Joseph and his team did an amaz- ing job last year and it certainly changed our views on what we might need to bring down.

“This horse has been on the radar for four months, but three months solidly.

“We had conversations with Kerrin [McEvoy] and there’s no better man for advice on what we need to win a Melbourne Cup.”