An international Melbourne Cup assault that is shaping as the most successful ever goes up another notch over the next few days with the arrival in Australia of some of the world's best trainers and jockeys.The first to step ashore will be Luca Cumani who arrives in Melbourne on Thursday with a live Melbourne Cup chance in Mad Rush waiting for him, and with a possible second string in the wings.Whether Cumani will be able to improve on the job already being performed so capably by his daughter F
An international Melbourne Cup assault that is shaping as the most successful ever goes up another notch over the next few days with the arrival in Australia of some of the world's best trainers and jockeys.
The first to step ashore will be Luca Cumani who arrives in Melbourne on Thursday with a live Melbourne Cup chance in Mad Rush waiting for him, and with a possible second string in the wings.
Whether Cumani will be able to improve on the job already being performed so capably by his daughter Francesca is another thing.
An accomplished horsewoman, Francesca Cumani last weekend produced Mad Rush to finish a luckless fourth to All The Good in the Caulfield Cup.
She has also put the polish on Wednesday's Geelong Cup runner Bauer.
For Cumani, the trainer of the winners of the English and Irish Derbys, Breeders' Cups, Japan Cup and Hong Kong Cup - as well as the Australian galloper Starcraft - the Melbourne Cup has become firmly fixed on his agenda.
"There's no doubt he has become more and more determined to win it," his daughter said.
"We were close last year with Purple Moon and I think we have an even better chance this year."
Cumani will be followed into town by Jane Chapple-Hyam, the trainer of Yellowstone, and Richard Gibson who prepares the French mare Varevees.
They in turn will be followed closer to Cup day by Saeed bin Suroor (All The Good) and Dermot Weld (Profound Beauty).
On Monday, the trainer who sets the standard worldwide arrives to put a lot more than the finishing touches to his three-horse Cup team.
Aidan O'Brien is clearly the world's most successful thoroughbred trainer.
This season alone, O'Brien, 39, has trained 21 Group One winners and he will saddle the Melbourne Cup favourite Septimus on Tuesday week.
Between now and then, he may well have increased his Group One tally thanks to the strong team he will campaign at this weekend's Breeders' Cup meeting in California.
For Chapple-Hyam, who is due on Friday to supervise the Cup preparation of Yellowstone, the journey is as much a homecoming as a racing assignment.
The daughter of former Liberal Party leader Andrew Peacock, Chapple-Hyam has achieved prominence in Britain with several major race wins including the success of Mudawin at 100-1 in one of Britain's best handicap races, the Ebor.
The name least familiar to Australians among the visiting trainers is that of Gibson.
An Englishman who lives and trains in France, Gibson has become one of the world's most successful international trainers.
In the past 12 months his horses have won the Hong Kong Vase, the Swiss Derby and the Man O'War Stakes at Belmont in New York.
Varevees is owned by Australian Rick Jamieson who has already pulled off something of a coup in local racing.
Jamieson has the rights to the colours carried by Archer, the winner of the first two Melbourne Cups.
Listed in the race book simply as "Black", the colours had surprisingly been unregistered for years when Jamieson inquired about them.
"I was pretty surprised when they told me they were available," he said.
Jamieson bought Varevees in France, largely as an addition to his broodmare band which he has put together with the aim of breeding Australian stayers to match those in Europe.
"I love the longer races, those sort of horses," he said.
Jamieson has enjoyed reasonable success in Australian racing having won a Group Two race in Adelaide with the English mare Trick Of Light and last Saturday led in Mine Game who carried his famous colours to victory at Caulfield.
While Varevees is a well-performed mare and has the form of a dour stayer, Jamieson isn't getting too carried away with her Cup chances.
"It would be very nice, especially in those colours," he said.
"But you have to be realistic - she has a chance, but I'm not sure how good it is."