BEST WORK BY GODOLPHIN IMPORT SINCE ARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA
GODOLPHIN'S Emirates Melbourne Cup contender Kirklees caught the eye with his best gallop since arriving in Melbourne at Sandown this morning.
Ridden by race jockey Kerrin McEvoy, Kirklees moved off from the 1400 metres and steadily
increased his tempo, running the last 1200 metres in 1:16 and sprinting home the final 400 metres
in 24 seconds.
Kirklees made late ground to finish seventh behind Viewed in the BMW Caulfield Cup at his Australian debut on 17 October after being forced wide at various stages of the race.
Kirklees galloped alone this morning rather than with his stablemate Crime Scene who was restricted to striding work.
Travelling foreman Tommy Strang said Crime Scene would be doing similar work rather than fast
gallops leading into next Tuesday’s $5.65m cup at Flemington.
Strang said Godolphin’s head trainer Saeed bin Suroor, who is scheduled to arrive at Sandown tomorrow, will decide if Crime Scene wears blinkers in the Melbourne Cup.
Strang said Crime Scene had worked well yesterday wearing the blinkers for the first time.
David Hayes’ plans of galloping Changingoftheguard with the South African-trained Mourilyan turned out to be less than satisfactory.
After cantering about 2400 metres with his attendant Lizzie Jelfs in the saddle, Glen Boss then took over on Changingoftheguard to gallop with Mourilyan over 1000 metres.
When they started Mourilyan, ridden by Glyn Schofield, was at least 25 lengths in front of Changingoftheguard and Boss started to get busy on the import rounding the home turn.
With Schofield sitting quietly on Mourilyan it seemed that Changingoftheguard would be able to at
least pick him up, but after drawing almost level near the 200 metres, it was Mourilyan who sprinted clear in the run to the line.
After a long post mortem with Boss on the gallop, Hayes said the work was “not exciting” but
Changingoftheguard “had to work too hard to get there (alongside Mourilyan)”.
“Boss said that when he did get there, Mourilyan, who hadn’t had to do anything, just sprinted,” Hayes said. “Trackwork isn’t everything and I expect him to be racing midfield in the Cup.”
Trainer Herman Brown is very happy with the condition of Mourilyan stating that “he’s ticking over
nicely and I just wish the Cup was tomorrow.”
In other international news, it was announced this morning that Zac Purton would return from Hong
Kong to ride the English stayer Munsef in the Melbourne Cup.
Regular jockey Eddie Ahern told trainer Ian Williams, who is expected to arrive in Melbourne early
tomorrow, that he would be unable to make Munsef’s weight of 53kgs.
RACING VICTORIA MEDIA RELEASE
Contact:: Shaun Kelly – RVL Communications Manager M: 0417 145 796 P: (03) 9258 4252
E: s,This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
