SYDNEY // Ireland's triple Ascot Gold Cup winner Yeats has been named top weight for the 5.65 million Australian dollars (Dh17.3m) Melbourne Cup in November, race organisers have confirmed. The Aidan O'Brien-trained Yeats was allocated 59 kg, marking the third year in a row the eight-year-old has been saddled with the highest handicap for Australia's richest and most famous horse race. Yeats's stablemate Septimus, who was crowned Europe's champion stayer in 2007, was given the second top weight of 58.5kg and last year's race winner, Australian horse Efficient, was handed 58kg.
"The best three staying performances of the last year were by Yeats, Septimus and Efficient so they will head the weights," the chief handicapper Greg Carpenter said. Delta Blues and Pop Rock, the Japan-trained duo which completed a unique one-two in the 2006 Melbourne Cup, were included among the top weights but have already been ruled out of the race because of Australia's strict quarantine regulation.
The Australian racing history was crippled last year by an outbreak of equine influenza that authorities traced back to Japan and officials have banned any horses travelling directly from Japan to Australia. Biosecurity officials have also extended the period all visiting horses need to spend in quarantine from 14 to 21 days but organisers are confident most of the top Europeans will still come.
"Whilst it is disappointing the Japanese won't be here this year the overall quality of the foreign entrants is the highest it's ever been," the Melbourne Cup spokesman Damien Booth said. "Despite the problems from last year, there are 56 internationals entered this year which is a great endorsement of the race and the carnival." The current list of 297 nominations will be cut dramatically for the first declarations on Sept 9.
The final field of 24 will be determined three days before the race on Nov 4 with around six foreign-trained runners expected to make it to the barriers. *Reuters