Balding on a Mission to land biggest prize in Oz
SPANISH Mission has been cleared to run in the Lexus Melbourne Cup and will start from stall 14 in tomorrow’s Flemington feature.
Andrew Balding’s British raider had to pass a late veterinary check on Saturday before being allowed to participate having been treated for swelling in one of his legs.
The Racing Victoria vets gave him the go-ahead to race and he will line up under Craig Williams in the Group One highlight as the general 6-1 second favourite behind home-trained runner Incentivise.
Peter Moody’s charge has won three Group One heats, including the Caulfield Cup, on his lead up to the race and his handler believes stall 16 is an “ideal” draw for Brett Prebble’s mount.
He told www.racing.com: “We’ll get a good run from there, he’s a roll-forward type of horse, when we have a look at the race, we’ll weigh it up what might happen tempo-wise.
“Probably just didn’t want to draw too low and have to dig up.”
Last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Twilight Payment is saddled with top weight and Joseph O’Brien’s charge will be in stall two of 24.
Chris Waller has elected to run star mare Verry Elleegant, who finished seventh in the race last year, and she was drawn in stall 19.
Other familiar names in the line up include Sir Lucan, a Navan Listed winner earlier in the year for Aidan O’Brien, who now represents Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and ex-Richard Hannon runner Floating Artist, now with Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
Spanish Mission is bidding to become just the second horse trained in England to win the famous race. The first was Cross Counter, who prevailed for trainer Charlie Appleby in 2018.