The Spring Racing Carnival will hit fever pitch at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon when some of the world’s best stayers step out for the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
The field is confirmed, the barrier draw completed, and it is finally time to dissect the twenty-four strong list and ultimately, find the winner.
The magic of the Cup is well and truly in the air and you can find my 2019 Melbourne Cup tips below.
Suggested Bets
- 2 Units E/W Mustajeer
- Boxed Trifecta of the selections below
I believed the hype before he stepped out in the Caulfield Cup and promptly took price in the Melbourne Cup futures market. Thankfully so, because he mustered an impressive turn of foot to run on for sixth – the run of a horse that looks as though he’ll relish getting out to the two miles at HQ. His quote almost halved at that point as well, meaning it’s the first time I’ve found something in the Cup futures market that hasn’t either been scratched, or subsequently drifted out to a cricket score-sized price. For that reason, I’m already a winner. In all seriousness though, this bloke is clearly a world-class stayer – he won the Ebor in August and has form around some absolute champions. There’s still plenty of meat on the bone at his current Melbourne Cup odds and I think he’s going to be extremely hard to beat.
Mer De Glace doesn’t know how to run a bad race and has found career-best form in 2019. The Japanese raider has recorded eight wins and seven minors from his eighteen career starts and has recorded five from five this year. The way he attacked the line to win the Caulfield Cup by more than a length was a thing of beauty, and it was also the run of a horse that appears as though he’ll be better over two miles. Jockey Damian Lane is offered the extremely rare opportunity to become the first jockey to ride the Caulfield Cup winner, Cox Plate winner and Melbourne Cup winner in the same season, and he is a serious chance of pulling it off.
Finche hasn’t run a bad race since arriving in Australia and has enjoyed a near-faultless preparation leading into the Melbourne Cup 2019. The Frankel gelding immediately stamped himself as one to watch when he finished second in last year’s Geelong Cup, before defying a huge price in the Cup to finish fourth. His four runs this time have been good – he won the Group 3 Kingston Town impressively and was probably unlucky not to win the Turnbull, while I thought there was a still a lot to like about the way he hit the line in the Caulfield Cup. For mine, there simply isn’t a better Melbourne Cup form reference than a horse that has run out the trip well previously and this bloke has not over most of these rivals.
At one stage, Hunting Horn was around the triple-figures mark in 2019 Melbourne Cup betting and I honestly have no idea how that was the case. Here we have a horse that is saddled by champion trainer Aidan O’Brien. In my opinion, nothing with those credentials should be displaying odds of more than 50-1. Digging into his form, however I personally would have had him priced at around $21. He has form around horses like Enable and Crystal Ocean this year, and he debuted in Australia last week for an impressive win in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup over 2500m. I think he’ll enjoy good improvement from that effort and looks up to running a big race in the Melbourne Cup.