Racing: The leading players in Tuesday's Melbourne Cup have labelled Irish runner Yeats as the one to beat, provided he can adjust to Australian racing conditions.
Trainers and jockeys alike believe the Ascot Gold Cup winner will become just the third horse trained outside of Australasia to take the region's most prestigious racing crown back to Europe.
David Hayes and Dwayne Dunn, the trainer and jockey of joint-favourite Tawqeet, both believe Yeats is the major hurdle standing in their way of becoming just the twelfth horse to complete the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double in the same year.
"I don't think team Ireland would have brought their best stayer down here unless they thought they could win. I've got a lot of respect for Geordieland as well - the amount of confidence in their camp, but I hope they're all wrong and I win," said Hayes.
Dunn said he expected Aidan O'Brien's charge to be challenging him in the straight - but only if he could handle the local conditions.
"If he comes out and he's got his A-grade game he's got serious Group One form. He's got a big ask ahead of him but if you're going to go on form, out of every horse in the race, he's the one that's hard to beat."
Jamie Poulton - trainer of outsider Land 'N Stars, who finished last in the Caulfield Cup - was still spellbound by Yeats' effort at Goodwood in August.
"Yeats was probably the most impressive staying performance I've ever witnessed at the Goodwood Cup that day," Poulton said.
"If the horse turns up in that frame of mind and gets the run he got at Goodwood he'll be extremely, extremely hard to beat."
Jockey Michael Rodd, who rode Efficient to victory in the VRC Derby on Saturday but will ride Activation in the Cup because he can't make Efficient's lightweight, is also another Yeats fan.
"If the international horses like Yeats travel out and handle the conditions of the day, then it looks like he's the quality horse of the race," he said.
While their rivals have identified the six-year-old as the horse to beat, the Yeats camp was not as bold to say their Sadler's Wells entire was home and hosed.
Tom Magnier - son of Coolmore Stud boss John, who owns the horse, said Tawqeet, Japanese stayers Delta Blues and Pop Rock and the Jamie Osborne-trained Geordieland were the main dangers.
"It's very hard to say. Aidan (O'Brien) likes him a lot and thinks he's going to suit the race. We've thought about sending horses down here before and we believe ourselves he is the horse we've had to win the Melbourne Cup," said Magnier.
"If we had sent horses down here before we'd have a fair idea but it's the first time. It's testing the water for us. There's a lot of very good horses in the race."