The trailblazing American galloper is owned by Jim and Dana Bernhard of Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky, and this is the first time they have travelled a horse overseas.

As a result, the family will be coming to Australia in force.

With them will be their son, Ben, who became vice-president of their racing business after tossing in his job as an aeronautical engineer.

“It’s cool to be a part of history, hopefully we create a path where others follow in the future … hopefully we are not the last,” Ben Bernhard told this masthead from Kentucky.

Bernhard said he felt the pull towards horsepower after his family bought Pin Oak Stud in 2022.

“I was at SpaceX in Los Angeles, and we had horses training out at Santa Anita, and I just really enjoyed going out to watch the horses train, hanging out with [trainer] Richard Mandella and I just sort of really got into it,” he said.

“Eventually, I decided to make the move and see how I could help from a technology perspective.”

But rather than help horses go “like a rocket”, Bernhard is focused on injury prevention.

He said his side company, Stable Analytics, placed “wearable sensors” on horses to track their every movement.

“These are the same sensors that have been around in aerospace forever,” he said. “The best algorithms for analysing this data come from the aerospace industry, so it works out well in that regard.”

Parchment Party has won all eight of his races on dirt tracks, but that should not detract from his chances in the Melbourne Cup, according to Bernhard.

“He’s run on turf before, he hasn’t won on turf yet,” Bernhard said. “But we haven’t really got a turf race at his preferred distance [in the US]. I think the distance will play to his strengths.

“He’s just a very classy horse. It takes a horse of a really good mind to run the way he does … running in between horses, running against the rail.

“Running through 20-something other horses [in a Cup field] won’t be an issue for him. He’s just a horse with a really good mind.”

Velazquez, 53, is the other key to the Parchment Party puzzle. No American-based jockey has ever ridden in a Melbourne Cup.

Not that Velazquez’s CV is filled with too many holes. The Puerto Rican-born rider has won three Kentucky Derbies, more than 6700 races and amassed more than $US500 million (about $770 million) in prizemoney for connections.

“He’s won on Parchment Party before so he knows him well, and he’s obviously one of the great jockeys, so we are excited to have him on,” Bernhard said.

So does America’s bold bid to win the Melbourne Cup stand a chance?

We asked Nine’s American sport correspondent and racing enthusiast Brad Blanks.

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“Johnny Velazquez is one of the great big-race jockeys of all time in the US and has had a fantastic record riding on turf,” Blanks said.

“He’s won at Royal Ascot a few times, which indicates he takes direction on foreign soil. For the owners of Parchment Party you would hope so.

“As for how the horse will go, sadly it won’t go very well.”

Not even with a rocket scientist as a secret weapon?

“He doesn’t need a secret weapon,” Bernhard said. “He’s got this. He doesn’t need me.”

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