Prescott set for Melbourne challenge with runner-up St Michel

Both Red Cardinal and St Michel made the trip across the Atlantic pay when fighting out the finish of the richly-endowed Belmont Gold Cup Invitational at Belmont on Friday.

The pair will be clocking up further air miles in search of even greater riches after Sir Mark Prescott revealed the Melbourne Cup as the long-term plan for St Michel, just as Andreas Wohler had for Red Cardinal, who had a neck to spare at the line in New York.

Prescott said on Saturday: "St Michel ran very well. He's a bit tired but he’s fine. All being well he'll go to the Melbourne Cup, and he'll run once somewhere before that."

Running in the colours of the late John Pearce, the four-year-old St Michel is fast developing into a stayer of some quality, having moved out of handicap company to finish third in the Doncaster Cup last September.

"Belmont was a race we’d had in mind for him all season and I'd have been a real clever so-and-so if he had won, but I’m thrilled nonetheless," added Prescott.

Wohler further enhanced his reputation as a leading campaigner on the international stage and will now prepare Red Cardinal for the Melbourne Cup, which he won for owners Australian Bloodstock three years ago courtesy of Protectionist.

"The main goal is the first Tuesday in November," said Wohler. "He'll probably have his next race in France. He then could race in Germany or in Australia itself.

"We want to give him a little break before he comes back. He'll be fresh for the campaign then. He started very late, but he keeps improving, and he's still progressing."

Result and analysis