DISTANCE QUERY FOR JAPANESE STAR
Even his trainer doesn’t know if Mer De Glace can stay Flemington’s 3200m
JAPANESE trainer Hisashi Shimizu honestly doesn’t know if his Melbourne Cup favourite Mer De Glace will stay the 3200m tomorrow.
His recent Caulfield Cup win (2400m) was the furthest he’d been in his 18-race career but he handled that to win the race with ease by a length over Vow And Declare and Mirage Dancer.
Shimizu was bombarded with one question straight after the barrier draw on Saturday evening.
Will he run a strong 3200m? “I’ve been asked this question a million times since in the past few days.
“I believe in the horse and the jockey so he should be able to handle it,” he said.
The stallion’s father Rulership was much like Mer De Glace in that he mainly raced between 1800m and 2200m but his son will look to extended his brilliance to a place he’s never been before.
“With that breeding, it’s hard to say. Some of them can stay two miles but some of them can even be sprinters,” Shimizu said.
“The breeding shows it’s possible for him to stay two miles but we won’t actually know unhe runs the race.
“He’s been well since the Caulfield Cup win so there was nothing to worry about and he’s been working well.”
Shimizu said the plan was simple with Mer De Glace as he got on to a plane to Australia a few months ago.
And his success at Caulfield has put his name up in lights in Australia and he’ll likely start a very well supported favourite on Tuesday.
“We wanted to have a horse close to 100 per cent for the Caulfield Cup, then if he ran well the plan was to go on to the Melbourne Cup,” Shimizu said.
“It’s a huge honour to have a favourite for the Melbourne Cup. I’m not even worrying about the other horses. I’m just trying to get mine right. Once I start thinking about rivals it will be never-ending.”
When asked about drawing barrier two, Shimizu wasn’t fazed by it.
“I’ve never had a runner in this race. I’ve only watched repays of the past so I’m not sure about what’s the best barrier,” he said.
“There’s a good straight until the first turn so I don’t really think the barrier will affect him that much.
“I’ll leave everything to Datil