A total of 124 nominations have been received for this year’s G1 Caulfield Cup, which will be run over 2400 metres on October 17.
There’s 20 nominations from Ireland (Joseph O’Brien is responsible for 15), 10 from England and two from France.
Interestingly, just one horse based in New Zealand has been nominated, which is somewhat surprising, at least to this author.
Firstly, Kiwi breeders are renowned for producing high-quality, tough, staying horses, which are key attributes required to be successful in a Caulfield Cup. This is evidenced by there being 24 nominees with the ‘NZ’ suffix, they being New Zealand-bred horses. The Caulfield Cup honour roll includes Mongolian Khan (2015) and Mr Lomondy (1986), both trained out of New Zealand, while Chris Waller’s old boss, Paddy Busuttin, took Castletown to the Caulfield Cup a few times, and the Donna Logan-trained Rising Romance was placed in the staying contest (in 2014).
In 2026, the Caulfield Cup will carry a race record $6 million prize purse, up from $5 million. The winner will collect $3.3 million, connections of all 18 starters will receive a cheque, and horses finishing outside the top 10 will pocket $60,000.
And lastly, it’s only a four-hour flight from Auckland to Melbourne.
The lone horse trained in New Zealand is Lisa Latta’s Manzor Blue – a six-year-old mare owned by Go Racing.
Albert Bosma, who founded Go Racing and is a director, told Racing.com times have changed and he wasn’t surprised to see Manzor Blue as the only Kiwi-trained nomination.
“Things have changed over the last 20 years. New Zealand horses are still very strong between a mile and 2400 metres, but there’s no doubt the influence from Europe, where they have hundreds of commercial stallions and so many stallions that have great staying blood… they have a higher quantity of quality horses coming out and that has changed the face of these big Cups races,” Bosma said.
“You still get good New Zealand stayers, but they tend to probably head over to Australia earlier and be sold and raced there.”
Manzor Blue is the reigning G3 Wellington Cup (3200m) champion and placed second in the G2 Auckland Cup (3200m).
Bosma stressed that nominating her for the Caulfield Cup isn’t audacious.
“She stays and she’s got a very, very good turn of foot. So, we’re not romantics in that we realise there’s a bit of a gulf between winning a Wellington Cup and running in a Caulfield Cup or a Melbourne Cup, but we believe she has the right qualities. She stays and she can run a very good sectional late, which is what you need to have. If you look at her win in the Wellington Cup, she was last for most of the race, then ran a very good last 600m to win, and that probably hasn’t been done since Kiwi in 1983, who won the Melbourne Cup.
“We think she has the capabilities to perform in a Caulfield Cup and a Melbourne Cup.”
Bosma revealed Manzor Blue won’t have a run in Melbourne before the Caulfield Cup. She will campaign in New Zealand then go straight into the Caulfield feature.
“Over the last 10 years, New Zealand horses have tended to head over to Australia early in the season, and that hasn’t worked, in our opinion. A large reason for that is they’re coming out of a cold New Zealand winter, they’re not as forward as the Australian horses and they struggle and lose confidence and lose rating points, so we’re going back to an old school preparation where Manzor Blue will be prepared in New Zealand the whole way. As the warmer weather hits here and she gets over further distances, we expect her to start stepping up into some form.
“She’ll go over and her first run will either be the Caulfield Cup or the Geelong Cup. The Caulfield Cup is the top pick, but if not, it will be the Geelong Cup and then a Melbourne Cup. She will only have two starts in Australia.”
Go Racing also has Omni Man and Soul Of Spain nominated for the Caulfield Cup. Omni Man, who is trained in Ireland by Joseph O’Brien and ran third behind A Boy Named Suzie in a 2000-metre Group 3 at the Curragh on Sunday, will definitely be coming to Australia for Caulfield Cup if he makes the field. Soul Of Spain begins his Cups campaign on Thursday in the Listed Rowley Mile (1600m) at Hawkesbury.
