It was a mixed day in Melbourne for the international trainers with Aidan O'Brien subjected to a media barrage over tactics, Luca Cumani happy to keep Mad Rush away from Flemington and Jane Chapple-Hyam battling to get Yellowstone to next week's Cup.O'Brien probably expected a less inquisitive welcome than the one he got at Sandown where the nine European contenders are housed.How are your horses? How will they run in the Melbourne Cup? Will you be cheating?Fit. Well. I wouldn't know how to.O'Br
It was a mixed day in Melbourne for the international trainers with Aidan O'Brien subjected to a media barrage over tactics, Luca Cumani happy to keep Mad Rush away from Flemington and Jane Chapple-Hyam battling to get Yellowstone to next week's Cup.
O'Brien probably expected a less inquisitive welcome than the one he got at Sandown where the nine European contenders are housed.
How are your horses? How will they run in the Melbourne Cup? Will you be cheating?
Fit. Well. I wouldn't know how to.
O'Brien arrived late on Monday to finish off the work he began back in March when he brought his three Cup horses, Septimus, Honolulu and Alessandro Volta, into his stable at Ballydoyle in County Tipperary.
At Sandown he saw them for the first time since they left home almost three weeks ago, and was introduced to the lively debate surrounding at least two of them.
It is assumed in most quarters that either Honolulu or Alessandro Volta - or both - will do as they would be required to do back home and act as pacemaker for their better-fancied stable companion Septimus.
Such a tactic is frowned upon in Australia where it could be regarded as team riding, which is totally contrary to the rules of racing.
Through the eyes of the world's greatest racehorse trainer, however, it's all a matter of interpretation.
"If you see a horse making the running in a race, you can't necessarily say he's a pacemaker," O'Brien said.
"But if a horse is being ridden very handy, and he ends up making the running, and he stays very well, then there's no point in taking him back."
Septimus is the favourite for the Cup with the Cumani-trained Mad Rush second-elect following his slashing Caulfield Cup fourth.
Cumani decided not to take Mad Rush for a look at Flemington on Tuesday morning in a move he said should be interpreted as a sign of the horse's good health and fitness.
"I decided late last night that the horse is ready, he didn't need to go," Cumani said.
"I didn't want to subject him to the stress of going there in the traffic, going there and bringing him back."
Cumani said his 2007 runner-up Purple Moon had benefited from a look at the Cup course because he was inclined to be on edge on race day.
Mad Rush worked instead at Sandown with stable companion Bauer who is currently 25th in the order of entry for the 24-horse field.
His chances of a Cup start may rest with the Chapple-Hyam-trained Yellowstone who has a hip injury after a stable incident.
"It looks like he's had a roll in his box and got stuck, you can see the scratches all over the walls where he's thrashed about," Chapple-Hyam said.
It is believed the horse hurt himself as he struggled to his feet.
A physiotherapist visited him on Tuesday and is scheduled to treat the horse again on Wednesday with his only exercise likely to be confined to walking.