Irish jockey eyes $8m Melbourne Cup amid reduced international participation

Wayne Lordan will try to become just the second Irish-based jockey to win the $8 million Lexus Melbourne Cup at Flemington in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Lordan is on outsider Point Nepean in a race that famously stops a nation but perhaps doesn’t grip the international spotlight as much as it used to.

Since Vintage Crop famously turned Melbourne Cup tradition on hits head in 1993, there have been half a dozen more international victories in Australia’s most iconic sporting contest.

They include Dermot Weld’s other winner Media Puzzle 20 years ago and the Joseph O’Brien pair Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020.)

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That trio were ridden by local jockeys, leaving Vintage Crop’s partner Michael Kinane as still the sole Irish rider to come out on top.

That this is Lordan’s fourth Cup ride, though, underlines previous international influence on the race,hich peaked with 10 international starters in 2019.

In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and perhaps more importantly stricter veterinary examinations introduced to try to counter a glut of fatalities in the race, overseas representation this time is down to a pair of English-trained hopes.

Deauville Legend and What A Fight have topped betting lists in advance of Tuesday’s race, which is off at 4am and live to both the devoted and insomniacs on Sky.

Instead of overseas-trained runners, this Cup contains plenty overseas-sourced horses running for local connections.

A handful of them are familiar to Irish race fans, none more so than the 2020 Epsom Derby winner Serpentine.

Having the unfortunate distinction of being the first Derby winner in a century to be gelded, he carries the colours of seven-time Cup winner Lloyd Williams and will be ridden by Johnny Allen.

The ex-jumps rider has transformed himself into one of Australia’s top flat jockeys in recent years.

His fellow Cork man, Lordan, rides the other Williams hope, Point Nepean, who used to be trained by Joseph O’Brien.

Lordan has ridden extensively for Williams in Ireland and his ability to do 8 stone has prompted this chance to follow in Kinane’s footsteps before continuing his global travels to Keeneland for the Breeders Cup starting on Friday.

That route will also be taken by William Buick, who teams up with What A Fight on Tuesday. Like Point Nepean and Serpentine, he will have to overcome a wide draw in the 24-runner field.

The British champion jockey rode at Flemington on Saturday and as well as picking up an eight-meeting ban — which doesn’t rule him out of the Breeders Cup — he also found himself a focus of the local bloodsport of knocking visiting riders after he failed to make the frame in eight rides.

In contrast to his compatriot, the James Ferguson-trained favourite Deauville Legend has a perfect spot in nine and will be ridden by three-time Cup winner Kerrin McEvoy.

Conditions at Galway’s Bank Holiday Monday fixture are likely to be very different from the Australian spring, but it hosts the latest instalment in Colin Keane and Billy Lee’s fight for the jockey’s championship.

Lee holds a one-winner lead (89-88) but Keane is still a 4-9 favourite to come out on top when the season ends in Naas next Sunday.

Lee is currently ruled out of both that date, and Dundalk on Friday, due to a six-day whip ban which he will appeal on Wednesday.

He has a full book of eight rides at Galway, one more than his rival, including three for his sister, Gillian Scott.

Keane’s seven rides are all for different trainers and a step back to seven furlongs and heavy ground could make Wee Pablo the best of them.

Grand National winner Noble Yeats lines up in Wexford’s Listed feature under new jockey Sean Bowen. The 25-year-old Welshman is currently chasing Brian Hughes in the British jockey’s title race.