Americans and Europeans don’t do it but backing horses up quickly yielded positive results during Melbourne Cup week

The latest Godolphin Flying Start blog comes from Ben Triandafillou, from Mornington, Australia. After graduating with a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Sports Journalism) from La Trobe University in 2021, he has worked for the last three years in racing stables and mixed media and production work for companies such as Racing.com and the Winning Post over the last four years  

We were fortunate enough to attend all four days of the Melbourne Cup week to see Australia’s best take on the international horses – some of which flew in weeks before the features and others that have acclimatised and spent a year in the country.

The spectacle at Flemington was second to none, with grandstands which take in all of the track and mounting yard and still have the space to not feel overwhelmed by crowds - which soared to 84,000 on the Cup day itself.

The hype for Willie Mullins’ stayer Vauban was electric in the build-up to the Melbourne Cup, which I hadn’t seen for some years, but it was to be another international, Without A Fight, who in tackling the two-mile contest for the second time came to the fore. 

It’s fascinating the improvement he has continued to make since being targeted at the race a year ago when under the tutelage of Simon and Ed Crisford.

Another key take-away from the Cup week was the remarkable success that came from horses on the quick back-up (within a week) who ran on Thursday’s Oaks day and Saturday’s Champions day.

While we’ve seen Americans and Europeans prep horses with a month between runs, we witnessed 19 horses have two runs within the space of a week, with seven of them winning (37 per cent winners to runners), including Group 1 victors Pride Of Jenni (Champion Mile), Atishu (Champion Stakes) and Zardozi (VRC Oaks). 

Another four of those on the back-up managed to place, meaning that 11 of the 19 finished inside the first three (58 per cent). 

It’s also worth noting that six of the 19 horses that backed-up ran in the Oaks, with one of the key lead-ups for that being the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes the Saturday before. Impressively, they filled four of the top five placings.

Lindsay Park’s Matt Pumpa runs the trainees through their various facilities

We also had the chance to visit some Victorian stud farms, such as the ever-growing Yulong Stud, Godolphin’s Northwood Park and Blue Gum Farm. 

It’s quite incredible the size Yulong has developed into and the quality of mares that are on the property. It looks as though there is constant development going on at the farm and it will be exciting to see what they will become in the next five years.

Out towards the Nagambie region was also the scenic set-up of Lindsay Park Racing. The trainees were fortunate to get a tour of the farm, which boasts three uphill tracks that reminds me quite a lot of the training facilities in Newmarket. 

Similarly, Macedon Lodge was a sight to see. It has gone from being the private training facility of Lloyd Williams, which has seen Melbourne Cup winner after Melbourne Cup winner pass through, to becoming an open centre with several trainers based out of the set-up. 

Godolphin Flying Start graduate Liam Howley currently has the most boxes at the facility, but it’s gaining great traction with leading trainers such as Chris Waller now also stabled there. Potential growth in the number of stables on the property is also on the cards.

We’re now currently on our six-week externships, where I have been fortunate to learn from the Hayes brothers at Lindsay Park Racing. The rest of the group are spread across Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast, as well as in Cambridge Stud in New Zealand.

Our next stop will be the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale in January 2024. 

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