This Saturday is the Ebor Handicap (Ebor being short for 'Eboracum', the Roman name for York). 4 of the last 5 winners have gone on to contest the Melbourne Cup. Recognising the links between the two events - and sweetening the £1mil prize - the Victoria Racing Club will pay for two all-expenses paid trips for Cup Week for winning connections.

The current favourite in the field (max of 22 runners) is King's Advice. He's a 5yo Frankel horse who's won 6 of his last 7 races - and 8 wins from his 10 total starts. Ahead of the 2011 Melbourne Cup his trainer Mark Johnston was quoted:

"The Melbourne Cup is not seen in Europe as it is in Australia," he says bluntly. "That's not my fault. It's just a fact. I would be lying if I said the Melbourne Cup has anywhere near the same kudos in Europe it has over here. It's a huge big prize and a huge challenge to take a horse from one side of the world to the other and win it. But it's not the biggest race in the world.

"It's not the most prestigious race. But it's certainly the most valuable. And this is my best chance to win it."

His runners that year were Fox Hunt and Jukebox Jury who went on to finish 7th and 20th respectively.

King's Advice is yet to qualify, given that he's yet to run outside of handicaps - but the top 3 finishers in the Ebor Cup will pass the first ballot clause.

Withhold is on the second line of betting. The one-time favourite for the 2018 Melbourne Cup had to be withdrawn from that race after bleeding in the Geelong Cup. He's run once since then, taking out the Marsh Cup in July, a 3300m handicap. "It’s a big decision to go [to Melbourne] again, but you’d think he’s the perfect type for it."

Raheen House is third favourite, announced today as being purchased by Australian Bloodstock. Raheen House holds some fame as once having beaten superstar mare Enable (back in April 2017 in Enable's second ever race). After the Ebor Handicap he'll come to Australia to contest both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.

As will the other recent Australian Bloodstock purchase in the field, Mustajeer. Last week the Hunter-based syndicators were reported as believing that Mustajeer is their best Caulfield Cup chance and among their top three Melbourne Cup hopes.

Sydney Cup winner Shraaoh and Torcedor headline the company's Melbourne Cup hopes in the TAB market at $26. Murrell rated Mustajeer ($51) ahead of the Chris Waller-trained Shraaoh, but:

"If Torcedor shows up, none of them will get near him," he said. "He's by far the best, but he's an older horse and he's only just started his campaign, so his worry is, is he going to be fit enough?"

Last year Torcedor recorded an elevated temperature as he was about to enter quarantine, ruling him out of an Australian trip. His first race since then was earlier this month, finishing 10 lengths back in a Listed German 2800m. The plan is for one more German race in mid-September and then straight to the Melbourne Cup. They'd want to see something in his next run though, surely...

Ducking the Ebor will be Gold Mount. From his trainer Ian Williams: "It's a great shame we are going to miss the Sky Bet Ebor, but he was sent to me from Richard Gibson in Hong Kong with a view to getting him ready for the Melbourne Cup, and that's the challenge now. He's been given a nice weight, and he'll get out to Australia early, so he may run in the Caulfield Cup there first."


In other racing news, Marmelo continues his good form with a win in the Prix Kergolay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Gd3hkddl4. He won that race in 2017 before finishing 9th in that year's Melbourne Cup. He was, of course, 2nd place last year after being overtaken late by Cross Counter. The two of them now share $17 favouritism in this year's futures markets with Ladbrokes. Apparently this will be his last run before heading to Melbourne once more. Third place in the Kergolay was Maky, an OTI runner whom we may see down here some time as well.


Latrobe won another, this time the Group 3 2400m Ballyroan Stakes: https://twitter.com/RacingTV/status/1159555247624413184.
"The main reason for coming here was that Lloyd and Nick Williams felt that it would be important to get a win under his belt this year and then we could make a plan for the second half of the year," Joseph O’Brien said.

"He has options all over the place. He could go to Australia, but he has options in America as well. There are places like Japan and there are big races here as well. I’m not sure where exactly he’s going to go yet."

It was subsequently reported that he'll next be contesting the Irish St Leger on September 15th, where he's also anticipated to meet Cross Counter.


Another Williams chance, Master of Reality, finished 3rd in the St Leger Trial Stakes: https://youtu.be/4ftKx9Ym-z0. It wasn't a surprise for a horse by an O'Brien to do well in the race: they comprised the whole field! Joseph O'Brien had 4 of the 6 runners while his father Aidan had the remainder. Dad won bragging rights with Southern France while Joseph filled the rest of the podium with OTI's Downdraft and Master of Reality. Downdraft was reported as needing to do well to increase his official handicap rating ahead of the release of Melbourne Cup weights next month.