Geelong Cup

He's a horse to follow, I reckon, long term.

And, uh, does the OTI team have Small Fry heading towards the Geelong Cup? Is that the plan to try and qualify?

Yeah, Geelong or Moonee Valley.

Um, um, he, he was super in York.

Now, there are some races that if you win, you get the golden ticket into the Melbourne Cup.

Now, all of a sudden, a race like the Moonee Valley Gold Cup and the Geelong Cup will be targets for those horses that are not going to get in there on their allocated weight.

And there is an attrition rate.

So you might look at it and say, oh, hang on, we're 35th in Australia.

order of entry at the moment well we think that maybe maybe 11 horses above us won't go that way or unfortunately might have a little setback and means they can't race and we will go up the order but then you can also get leapfrogged by horses winning those golden ticket races as well so A horse like Menzel Blue is going to come across and run in the Geelong Cup, hopefully runs well and then goes on to a Melbourne Cup.

But that all of a sudden becomes a target for those horses that just need a little bit of a penalty or something to go their way or the golden ticket races into the Melbourne Cup to make sure they're there.

So it will impact how some of these trainers map out their campaigns.

And then you've got the three horses who at the minute haven't passed the, the ballot clause, Small Fry, Omni Man, and Starford.

I think Small Fry is heading towards the Geelong Cup with Omni Man and Starford bound for the Caulfield Cup.

So they, they have to get into, uh, the field if you like at the moment.

But there are certainly six horses who I say are guaranteed to get in.

It's

interesting, the Archer too, because one smooth operator was nominated for the race on Monday and they've elected, I think, to wait to run him in next week's Naturalism, the Geelong Cup and Moonee Valley Cup winner of the last couple of seasons.

But his rating had him, I think, a 59 kilo top weight and he had let's deal at 54 and a half when the weights came out on Tuesday.

New rules to a lot of these races now means that they still need a 59 kilo top weight.

And, uh, we've squeezed Small Fry onto that, and, uh, I just...

You know, we're gonna have to win the Moonee Valley Cup or win the Geelong Cup, and then we're a chance.

And, and then if that, that comes off, I'll be flying in here, Jarred, and oh, v- v- it's a childhood dream to have a cup runner.

But we're a long way from that yet, but, but it's, uh, great to be, uh, you know, have a, have a throw at the stumps.

The...

The 2026 Ladbrokes Geelong Cup is on Wednesday, the 21st of October.

And then, of course, it's whipping right through from there on to right through to Melbourne Cup Day and afterwards.

Yeah, it's about the third week in October where we get that down for.

Well, it's going to be fantastic to see this horse come across to Australia and hopefully perform well.

I spoke to trainer Alyssa Larder a few days ago, and the plan is to have one or two more runs in New Zealand, then come across to Australia, contest the Geelong Cup, which has been a really good form reference for the Melbourne Cup, and then go on to the Melbourne Cup.

And This would just be a terrific story because the Melbourne Cup, it's been inundated with these high-priced internationals in recent times that we don't know a lot about, where this horse is more of a traditional stain type from New Zealand, caused a massive upset winning the Wellington Cup at 100-1 and proved that was no fluke when running second in the Auckland Cup.

So hopefully we can see another good performance Run or two in New Zealand, then come across and go well in the Geelong Cup, and then we'll be just a massive sentimental favourite with so many racing fans on Cup Day.

Should we get to the big one?

And the winner of that Auckland Cup was Trav, which I just think is just such an awesome name for a horse.