Williams unlikely to run star pair in Cup

Lloyd Williams’ quest for a seventh Melbourne Cup victory this spring may not include two of his best gallopers with the owner indicating his quinella horses Rekindling and Johannes Vermeer are unlikely to again chase the race.

On the back of a his groundbreaking Irish Derby victory with the Joseph O’Brien-trained Latrobe at The Curragh over the weekend, Williams told Melbourne’s RSN radio yesterday that he felt both horses would attract too much weight and so would have different targets in the spring.

“Very unlikely that you will see them in the Cup,” Williams said on Monday. “We’ll see them probably in weight-for-age races but they will be up too far in the weights.”

Rekindling, who won the Melbourne Cup for the then 24-year-old O’Brien last November, has not raced since after Williams decided against racing him in the autumn after earlier reversing a plan to send him back to his Irish home, reports Racing.com.

Johannes Vermeer has also not raced since his Melbourne Cup placing. He was entered to race in March’s Blamey Stakes at Flemington but did not accept.

Williams said Latrobe was also far from a certainty to come to Australia in the spring.

“He’s only a three-year-old so to bring them out here they have to be down at the bottom of the weights because they are conceding time to the other horses,” he said.

“I would be surprised if you see him but I am always keen on a Melbourne Cup.

“If they gave him some sort of opportunity of being competitive in the race at the weights I would obviously consider bringing him out but there’s a big question mark at the moment.”

Williams said he was looking forward to the belated Australian debut tomorrow at Sandown of former Irish horse Streetcar To Stars.

“He’s a horse I had in Ireland with John Oxx and he’s had nothing but trouble since he came out here,” he said.