The TAB International Horse Centre at Werribee was a hive of activity on Wednesday morning with all 16 international horses going through their paces for the first time. Well-fancied Mount Athos, trained by Luca Cumani, was on the track for the first time along with stablemate My Quest For Peace. Both horses looked bright and keen as they stretched their legs over a circuit of the course proper for the first time since their arrival from the UK on Saturday. Cumani's other pair Afsare and Ibicenc
The TAB International Horse Centre at Werribee was a hive of activity on Wednesday morning with all 16 international horses going through their paces for the first time. Well-fancied Mount Athos, trained by Luca Cumani, was on the track for the first time along with stablemate My Quest For Peace. Both horses looked bright and keen as they stretched their legs over a circuit of the course proper for the first time since their arrival from the UK on Saturday. Cumani's other pair Afsare and Ibicenco, both made their first appearance on Tuesday and the former, who is heading to the $3m Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on October 27 is raring to go.
Luca Cumani's travelling foreman Charlie Henson says Afsare, who was unlucky at his last start when 2nd in the Grp 1 Arlington Million (2000m) in Chicago, is a talented performer worth respecting. The much-travelled Jakkalberry also made his first appearance on the training track and had an easy canter, ridden by his groom Alex Cairns.Trained by UK-based Italian horseman Marco Botti, one of the rising stars of British racing, the Australian-owned Jakkalberry will run in both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. There is now confirmation that the Dermot Weld-trained Galileo's Choice has undergone treatment for travel sickness but he's reported to have bounced back quickly and has been on the track with the other horses over the past two days.
There doesn't seem to be much sympathy around for banned Danny Nikolic. The general assessment seems to be that if his appeal fails he will never ride again - not in Australia, anyway. Ron Reed, in the Melbourne Herald Sun, says: 'Nikolic is 37, which is not exactly pension age for a jockey, but this physically demanding caper would be very difficult to pick up again after such a long spell. More to the point, perhaps, would he be welcome? There won't be many shouting their sympathy for him from the rooftops. However much truth there may or may not be in his allegations of a conspiracy to run him out of the industry, it's fair to suggest he has become more trouble than he is worth. He has been racing's most controversial figure for at least two years, his barrister Sandy Robertson pointing out in an optimistic plea for leniency that he "has effectively been in the stocks for many months". That's because he has found a lurid assortment of ways to find trouble - including police questions about suggestions of race fixing - and has developed a reputation for insolence, arrogance and contempt for authority.'