Glen Boss: 'He might just blow this Melbourne Cup field away'
Glen Boss • November 4th, 2024 12:20 PM
If the best version of Vauban turns up, he might just blow this Melbourne Cup field away.
What’s clear going into this Cup is how strong the form of the internationals has been. Just look at the way Onesmoothoperator and Sea King toyed with their rivals in the Geelong and Bendigo Cups over the past couple of weeks.
While they are both clearly exciting stayers on the rise, Vauban’s form back home was miles better than them and in some of the best staying races in that part of the world.
His trainer Willie Mullins is one of the best. He’s admitted he got things wrong with Vauban’s preparation last year, so I’m willing to totally forgive the run.
He galloped the horse very strongly in the lead-up and I remember when he walked into the mounting yard on Cup Day, he just looked “off”. All the good mounting yards judges felt the same way and he ran accordingly (14th).
Since then, he’s had five runs back home in very strong races for a win, two seconds, a third and a fourth.
He was a real buzz horse last year, has another strong year of grounding, gets in quite well at the weights and this is not a strong Melbourne Cup.
Vauban’s stablemate Absurde is also back again. I really liked him last year and he ran well for seventh but had every chance and didn’t run out the 3200m.
He’s mixed hurdle racing and some nice flat runs back home this year and Willie wouldn’t have brought him back unless he thinks he can stay the distance better this time.
Buckeroo is by far the best of the locals. He seriously pushed the Ladbrokes Cox Plate winner (Via Sistina) two starts back at Flemington in the Turnbull and then his Caulfield Cup run was excellent.
The big question is will he run the 3200m? Yes, he hit the well over 2400m at Caulfield, but I’ve still got some doubts about the extra 800m.
He’ll need a great ride from Joao Moreira, especially from the wide barrier (21). It’ll need to be a better ride than at Caulfield when he got stuck behind a couple of the wrong horses at a crucial stage. He should’ve gone very close to winning.
The fly-in international riders are great, but sometimes they don’t know the form of all their rivals as well as the local riders.
He’s going to have settle a bit further back than he’d like now from the wide draw, so cutting some corners and knowing which horses to follow and avoid will vital.
There’s a long tail to this Cup, it’s really thinned out, so I don’t see too many winning chances.
Onesmoothoperator looked good at Geelong. He showed a nice turn of speed and ran through the line well, like he’d relish 3200m.
Okita Soushi returned to form with a terrific Herbert Power run and backed-up it with that impressive Moonee Valley Cup win.
He’s got no weight and a jockey in Jamie Kah, who will be full of confidence after a day to treasure on Saturday.
WHO’S THE BOSS?
TOP TIP: Vauban
DANGER: Buckeroo
VALUE: Okita Soushi
Glen Boss is an Entain ambassador
