Three times Melbourne Cup winning jockey Damien Oliver has the chance to join four times winners Harry White and Bobby Lewis if he can boot home Mustajeer in Tuesday’s Group 1 $8m Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington.
Jockey Damien Oliver, above winning the Victoria Derby on Warning, will ride Mustajeer in the 2019 Melbourne Cup at Flemington. Photo by Steve Hart.
The Kris Lees trained European import Mustajeer is marked at $17 for the Melbourne Cup at Ladbrokes.com.au and made up plenty of ground from the back to finish sixth to Mer De Glace in the Group 1 $5.15m Stella Artois Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on October 19.
The Caulfield Cup was Mustajeer’s first run on Australian soil and Oliver is expecting further improvement from the seven year old.
“We’ve got a chance in a very tough race. There’s so many Europeans in the race so it’s hard to line up the form,” Oliver told The Courier-Mail.
“He ran well in the Caulfield Cup and I feel he’s come on from that run after riding him on Friday.”
Oliver’s third win in the Melbourne Cup was in 2013 on the Gai Waterhouse trained Fiorente and that followed wins on Media Puzzle in 2002 and Doriemus in 1995.
Harry White is the modern day record holder for the Melbourne Cup wins with four wins in six years between 1974 and 1979 on two times winner Thing Big (1974, 1975), Arwon (1978) and Hyperno (1979) while Bobby Lewis’ wins were spread over twenty-six years from 1902 to 1927 on The Victory (1902), Patrobas (1915), Artilleryman (1919) and Trivalve (1927).
Mustajeer is yet to race over the Melbourne Cup distance of 3200m but did win the richest flat race in Europe over 2787m, the GBP £1,000,000 Ebor Handicap at York in England in August.
Oliver is riding in great form and kicked off the four Day Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington on Saturday in terrific fashion with a win on Miami Bound in the Group 2 $300,000 G.H. Mumm Wakeful Stakes (2000m) followed by a win on Warning in the Group 1 $2m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) and he is certain to give Mustajeer every chance to run out a strong 3200m from barrier six in the twenty-four horse Melbourne Cup field.
Caulfield Cup winner Mer De Glace has a great chance to give the Japanese a clean sweep of Melbourne’s three major feature races after the Japanese trained Lys Gracieux took out the Group 1 $5m Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) at The Valley on October 26.
Mer De Glace is the firming $6.50 favourite at Ladbrokes.com.au for the Melbourne Cup and has drawn in close at gate two with Caulfield Cup winning jockey Damian Lane in the saddle again.
The Lindsay Park trained Constantinople is on the second line of betting at $8 ahead of the first of Chris Waller’s two runners, Finche, at $10.
Betting for the 2019 Melbourne Cup at Ladbrokes.com.au: $6.50 Mer De Glace, $8 Constantinople. $10 Finche, $12 Vow And Declare, $13 Cross Counter, $14 Il Paradiso, $15 Surprise Baby, $17 Prince Of Arran, Mustajeer, $19 Southern France, $19 Raymond Tusk, $20 Downdraft, $21 Latrobe, $26 Master Of Reality, Magic Wand, $31 Youngstar, $34 Hunting Horn, Mirage Dancer, $51 Twilight Payment, $67 Steel Prince, $71 Rostropovich, $81 The Chosen One, $126 Sound, $201 Neufbosc.
