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Champion trainer Darrren Weir's English-bred gelding Signoff leapfrogged over several rivals to gain a start in the $6.2 million Melbourne Cup with his comfortable victory in the Lexus Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
Ridden by crack Brazilian jockey Joao Moreira, the five-year-old gelding has now shortened significantly in the market to be the third horse in the past 15 years to score in Saturday's Lexus and then take the Cup.
Brew, from Mike Moroney's Flemington yard, and Mark Kavanagh's Shocking trod the same route.
Well-known racing media identity Dean Lester, who is the racing manager for Signoff's senior part-owner, Gerry Ryan, took the initiative to book the Hong Kong-based Moreira, whom many regard as the best jockey in the world, earlier this week.
"I said to Gerry that the best jockey for this horse would be Moreira and after we talked on the phone he agreed to take the ride. I told Gerry that he is one jockey who can fly into a different country and still adapt having never seen the racecourse.
"He told Darren when he got off that he has a great passion for the Melbourne Cup and, while he will be half a kilo over, he will take the ride on Tuesday," Lester said.
Moreira had shown his class earlier in the day when he had won the $1 million Coolmare Stud Stakes for Chris Waller aboard Brazen Beau.
While Signoff grabbed the Saturday headlines, he will face stiff opposition with a record number of foreign raiders – 11 – lining up for a race that is now widely regarded as the top staying event in the world.
Bookmakers take a dim view of a local horse's prospects, with Japan's Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti heading the market, and German horse Protectionist also strongly fancied.
Still, there is a significant local challenge. Lloyd Williams, for whom winning the Melbourne Cup is an annual odyssey, has two runners, with perhaps Australia's best prospect, Fawkner, leading his assault. He also runs expensive import Sea Moon, although his 2012 winner Green Moon was withdrawn on Saturday morning.
OTI Racing, headed by Terry Henderson and former Test cricketer Simon O'Donnell, has four contenders – and it could have been five had it not been forced to scratch Lord Van Percy from the Lexus on Saturday morning.
Bart Cummings is synonymous with the Melbourne Cup, having won 12 previously; he now trains in partnership with his grandson, James, and the pair will be represented by the evergreen Precedence, who will be competing in his fourth Melbourne Cup.
English challenger Red Cadeaux, from Ed Dunlop's Newmarket stable, will also be running in his fourth Cup, having finished second at two previous attempts – last year, behind Fiorente, and in 2011, when he was beaten by a fraction by Dunaden.
Tuesday's field will be one of the oldest on record, with three nine-year-olds in Red Cadeaux, Precedence and Cavalryman, who will sport Godolphin's Royal Blue all that age. The latter is returning for a second tilt at the Cup.
Moreira will not be the only high-flying Hong Kong jockey bidding to take the prize back to Asia: Australian Zac Purton, successful on Admire Rakti in the Caulfield Cup, will be attempting to defy top weight and become the first horse to win the double since Ethereal. Italian Andrea Atzeni will be having his first ride on the English-trained mare My Ambivalent while Irish jockey-turned-trainer Johnny Murtagh, who rode in the race, is now saddling up two contenders, Royal Diamond and Mutual Regard.
Tony McEvoy's Big Memory, which won the Herbert Power and ran second to Signoff in the Lexus, is probably the only one of those who missed out to feel as though he could have had a place in the field.
