Just how good are the international runners in the Caulfield Cup? Melbourne Racing Club honchos are saying they are superstars. MRC chairman Peter Young reckons Cima De Triomphe and Kirklees are better performed in Europe than Speed Gifted was before he came to Australia earlier this year. They'll be the first European Grp 1 winners to run in a Caulfield Cup. He says: 'With the line-up we've got, headed by the strongest European representation ever, it is certainly going to be a strong, competit
Just how good are the international runners in the Caulfield Cup? Melbourne Racing Club honchos are saying they are superstars. MRC chairman Peter Young reckons Cima De Triomphe and Kirklees are better performed in Europe than Speed Gifted was before he came to Australia earlier this year. They'll be the first European Grp 1 winners to run in a Caulfield Cup. He says: 'With the line-up we've got, headed by the strongest European representation ever, it is certainly going to be a strong, competitive race.'
MRC officials were shocked when Lee Freedman pulled his classy import Speed Gifted out of the race, though some form analysts are potting SG's mud-track Metrop win at Randwick. Speed Gifted will now target the Cox Plate on the way to the Melbourne Cup.
Gerald Ryan changed his mind about a CC run for Ready To Lift when he learned of the demise of the injured Maldivian and Freedman's decision to pull Speed Gifted. Ryan had more or less decided the previous night not to run the mare. But he says: 'I was definitely influenced when some of those started falling out out of the race...I thought, 'she's fit, she's here, she's got 51.5 kilograms, which she's never had in her life before. Why wouldn't I run her'?''