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Australian Bloodstock director Jamie Lovett is banking on the undoubted class of Melbourne Cup topweight Al Riffa being a major factor on Tuesday after Saturday night\u2019s barrier draw seemed to do him no favours.<\/p>\n
Australian Bloodstock has shares in three Melbourne Cup runners on Tuesday in Al Riffa, Vauban and Royal Supremacy, but Al Riffa was always going to take much of the attention in the lead-up due to his recent G1 form, which sees him take a whopping 59 kilograms into Tuesday\u2019s $10 million race.<\/p>\n
But despite the barrier seemingly adding another complication for the last-start Irish St Leger winner, Lovett said the horse\u2019s immense class made it difficult to discount him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEssentially, you always like to draw in but if the rain comes, I am probably not that disappointed (with barrier 19),\u201d Lovett said of the horse Australian Bloodstock part-purchased mid-year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there will be plenty of speed from outside. Changingoftheguard has drawn 24 and I assume the intention will be to go forward so hoping Mark (Zahra) can get on the back of that and get in somewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tell me the horse is great. He never lost any weight on the trip over, and his work has been good, and we\u2019re really excited for Tuesday. I think he\u2019s in a good spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe obviously has got to overcome topweight, which history would suggest is very hard to win with, but I think he is a very good horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very confident he will run very well whether or not weight is a factor but he\u2019s one of the better horses to come down in recent times and he just might be able to carry that weight.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t forget that Joseph (O\u2019Brien) has won two of these (Melbourne Cups) so that experience has got to help as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
“He’s just the best horse.”<\/p>\n
The panel on #TheVerdict<\/a> dissect Al Riffa’s Melbourne Cup chances \ud83c\udfc6\ud83e\uddd0 pic.twitter.com\/hvwVcyYEzj<\/a><\/p>\n