No clear topweight for Melbourne Cup

Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter says there will be some surprises for connections with horses entered in the Melbourne Cup.

Carpenter will release weights for the Cup, and the Caulfield Cup, next Tuesday and said with no natural topweight nominated it leaves him with a difficult task.

He says the absence of Stradivarius and last year’s quinella paring of Rekindling and Johannes Vermeer from the nominations, there is no clear topweight to carry the required 58kg.

“It leaves me in a very challenging situation which I have to work really closely through,” Carpenter told RSN927.

“The highest rated horse in the race is Humidor but his record at 2400 metres and beyond isn’t the same at it is as over 2000 metres.

“With no clear topweight of 58kg, what that means is something will have to be topweight when weights come out next Tuesday.

“Most of those horses in the race will have to have an expectation that they’re going to get more weight than they normally would have expected, other than those on the minimum 50kg.”

RV’s general manager International and Racing Operations Paul Bloodworth said the 50 entries for the Melbourne Cup and the 27 in the Caulfield Cup had exceeded expectations.

He is also expecting the house full sign to be displayed in quarantine at Werribee once weights are declared.

Three Charlie Appleby-trained Godolphin horses – Jungle Cat, Folkswood and Blair House – are due to arrive at Werribee on Saturday with two of the trio to run at Caulfield on September 22..

With capacity at Werribee capped at 32 horses, Bloodworth is confident every box will be filled by the time the last shipment of horses arrives next month.

“There’s a little bit of water to go under the bridge but we’ve received a lot of demand for spots out at Werribee and I think we’ll fill every box,” Bloodworth said.