Pair of ex-pats looking to get one over local trainers in Flemington showpiece

An exodus of European equine talent to Australia to target Melbourne’s Spring Carnival riches is now commonplace. Since victory in the Melbourne Cup for the French-trained Dunaden in 2011, IRE, GB, FR and GER suffixes have claimed no fewer than nine of the last 11 runnings of the race, and race legend Makybe Diva, who won three consecutive runnings from 2003, was bred in Britain.

With Antipodean buyers purchasing 17 per cent of the lots for 6.1 million guineas at the recent Tattersalls Horses in Training sale in Newmarket, it is a trend that is only going to become more pronounced.

However, responsible for six of this year’s 24 Cup contenders – 13 of whom are European-bred – are two British exports of the human kind, who are making a staying impact of their own on the training landscape in Australia.

Six years ago, Annabel Neasham, who turns 32 next month, was occasionally riding point-to-point horses for Tom Ward while completing a university degree, but the Northamptonshire native is now preparing her first Melbourne Cup runner.

The Teme Valley-owned Numerian lines up as a 70-1 shot, but Neasham has defied such odds before, despite taking out a licence just 20 months ago.

In that time, she has saddled three Group 1 winners of six Group 1 races, as well as 23 stakes scorers, and she lies sixth in the metropolitan training premiership – ahead of Peter Moody of Black Caviar fame and the first lady of Australian racing Gai Waterhouse, who won her first Melbourne Cup in 2013, nearly two decades after she started training.

David Eustace (left): joint-trainer with Ciaron MaherCredit: Daniel Pockett / Getty Images

However, trumping Neasham on that list is David Eustace, the brother of Newmarket trainer Harry, and son of James, and one half of the powerful Ciaron Maher stable, whose Sydney operation Neasham managed before going it alone before her 30th birthday.

Speaking to racing.com, Eustace said of Neasham: “She makes an impression pretty quickly. Her success has been remarkable, but she fully deserves it.

“I’ve never seen anything else quite like it in terms of how quickly she’s made things happen. Horsemanship is one thing but getting people to trust you to source horses is quite another. She listens, she asks questions, she’s decisive and she’s willing to take a risk.”

Eustace, who eight years ago "came [to Australia] for experience and never envisaged staying", joined Maher in the 2018-19 season and the pair have since won 19 Group 1s, including the 2020 Cox Plate with Sir Dragonet.

Their runners this year include the topweight, French import Gold Trip, for Australian Bloodstock, and one of the more fancied of the southern hemisphere-bred contingent, recent Group 1 winner Smokin’ Romans, who is a 16-1 shot.

“If I had a ride in the race, I’d be on Gold Trip, then I’d be on Smokin’ Romans and then I’d be on Interpretation,” Eustace said.

“Gold Trip’s a weight-for-age horse and I think that's going to count for a lot in a race like this. A lot of the horses have scraped in, but he’s the class of the race."

He added: We’re really proud of the team. To have five runners in a race like this is a testament to the work that has been put in over the last six months to get the horses there, and they go there in really good order.”

Read more . . .

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