Irish Trainer Mullins Gears Up for Iconic Melbourne Cup Rac

Irish trainer Willie Mullins aims for his first Melbourne Cup victory in Australia’s iconic race on Tuesday. Known for training over 100 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, Mullins has prioritized the Melbourne Cup as a key target. He hopes last year’s favorite, Vauban, who finished 14th will perform better this time around. Mullins also enters Absurde, who placed seventh in the previous year’s race. Among the other competitors, Onesmoothoperator trained by Brian Ellison and Sea King trained by Harry Eustace will represent British trainers at Flemington Racecourse.

Buckaroo the Caulfield Cup runner-up stands as one of the leading Australian hopes alongside Chris Waller’s quartet: Kovalica, Land Legend, Valiant King and Manzoice.  Vauban recently won the Lonsdale Cup at York and finished second to Kyprios in the Irish St Leger while Absurde claimed victory in the Chester Stakes after winning the County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.

Mullins expressed his desire to win the Melbourne Cup, calling it “probably the biggest flat race in the world that I can win with the type of horses we buy.” He previously finished second with Max Dynamite in 2015. Historically, only four Irish-trained horses have won the Melbourne Cup: Vintage Crop (1993), Media Puzzle (2002), Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020).

Aidan O’Brien will miss out this year after Jan Brueghel failed a veterinary check. Ellison and Eustace aim to become the second British trainers to win this two-mile contest, following Charlie Appleby’s success with Cross Counter in 2018. British jockey Hollie Doyle riding Sea King hopes to become only the second female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup joining Michelle Payne, who won in 2015.

This year marks a record participation of four women jockeys in the race, showcasing the sport’s commitment to equality.