Champion Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien’s light weight chance Rostropovich is at healthy double figure odds in the 2018 Melbourne Cup betting.

Rostropovich ran 5th to Winx, above, in the 2018 Cox Plate at The Valley. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

Ladbrokes.com.au have Rostropovich marked at $26 after the number 24 draw barrier twenty-one but O’Brien believes he will be well suited by the 3200m of the Group 1 $7.3m Lexus Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday.

O’Brien sent Rostropovich out to stretch his legs when fifth to Winx in the   Group 1 $5m Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) at The Valley on October 27 and is looking forward to seeing him step up to the 3200m in a couple of days.

“He was a horse that we always thought would stay forward in a mile and a half,’’ O’Brien told RSN 927.

‘’He seems to be on a lovely weight. When he went down we felt we needed to give him a run to sharpen him up and that’s why we ran him at Moonee Valley (Cox Plate) over a mile and a quarter.

‘’Ryan (Moore), who rode him there, was very happy with him and felt that obviously going further would suit him.

‘’Wayne (Lordan) is going down to ride him. He is just perfect in on the bottom (weight).’’

Irish jockey Wayne Lordan will travel down to Melbourne to replace Ryan Moore on the Northern Hemisphere three year who has to race as a four year old while campaigning in the 2018 Spring Racing Carnival.

Rostropovich has won four of his thirteen starts, his latest win being in the Group 3 €100,000 Club Stakes (2414m) at Leopardstown in Ireland on September 15 while his best Group 1 performance was a second in the 2018 €1,500,000 Irish Derby (2414m) at the Curragh in Ireland in June.

O’Brien will also saddle up the $6 favourite Yucatan who has drawn awkwardly at barrier twenty-three with James McDonald retaining the ride in the Melbourne Cup and the $16 chance The Cliffsofmoher who has drawn okay at gate nine for Ryan Moore.