{"id":142779,"date":"2025-09-17T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142779\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:27:09","slug":"horse-racing-2025-al-riffa-set-for-melbourne-cup-win-rsn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/142779\/","title":{"rendered":"Horse Racing 2025: Al Riffa Set For Melbourne Cup Win | Rsn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph O’Brien believes Al Riffa has all the attributes to take out the Cup. <\/p>\n

Irish superstar trainer Joseph O\u2019Brien is a two-time Melbourne Cup winning trainer, clinching the Cup in 2020 with Twilight Payment and then again in 2017 with Rekindling.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien will have two runners in this year\u2019s edition of the Melbourne Cup – Al Riffa and Goodie Two Shoes – who will both be racing to secure the Irishman\u2019s third cup on the first Tuesday of November.<\/p>\n

Joseph O\u2019Brien joined SENTrack and RSN\u2019s Giddy Up to break down his Melbourne Cup chances.<\/p>\n

Al Riffa is the current favourite for Australia\u2019s great race at $6 (on Sportsbet), whereas Goodie Two Shoes is an outside chance at $41.<\/p>\n

The Cup favourite is coming off an exceptional first-up Group 1 Irish St. Leger victory (2816m) which impressed his trainer.<\/p>\n

\"SSxTrack<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAl Riffa was really good, he\u2019s obviously a very high-class colt for the last number of seasons,\u201d O\u2019Briend said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince he\u2019s gone up in distance, he\u2019s two from two. He was probably as good as ever on the weekend at Curragh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited about the future with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the decision to run Al Riffa up in distance, the Irish trainer revealed the stallion\u2019s amazing run in the Group 2 Ascot Gold Cup (2405m) is the reason why he\u2019s now being ran at a longer distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was able to run at such a high level at 10 and 12 furlongs, we never really needed to step out in trip. It was always something that was on the back of our minds,\u201d O\u2019Brien revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dame was actually a sibling to a horse that was placed in the Ascot Gold Cup (4014m), so there is plenty of stamina in his pedigree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we finished second to Rebel\u2019s Romance in Ascot, we felt that maybe it was a good time to try him over further.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s looked good both times up in distance this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien compared Al Riffa to both his Melbourne Cup winners \u2013 Twilight Payment and Rekindling \u2013 admitting that the stallion may currently be in a better position then his Cup winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of them fell a bit short at Group 1 level in their seasons here before travelling down, but this guy is a multiple Group 1 winner,\u201d said the Irishman.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has good attributes that we think might translate to a race like the Melbourne Cup \u2013 he\u2019s a stayer who has some speed and he has a good turn of foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe settles very well and he\u2019s a very straight forward horse.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s won on all ground, to be honest. He\u2019s won on fast, he\u2019s won on slow, he\u2019s pretty versatile.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would hope a track like Flemington would suit him well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"eDM<\/a><\/p>\n

Both Al Riffa and Goodie Two Shoes will enter quarantine next week in preparation to travel down under for Australia\u2019s great race.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe goes into quarantine next week and then he\u2019ll have his two weeks here before he travels down,\u201d O\u2019Brien revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan for Goodie Two Shoes is to travel down as well (with Al Riffa).<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in career best form, she is an intended runner as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan is for her to go straight to the Cup and hope that she makes it across.\u201d<\/p>\n

See why Al Riffa will struggle to win the Melbourne Cup here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joseph O’Brien believes Al Riffa has all the attributes to take out the Cup. Irish superstar trainer Joseph…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2325,21467,26235,436,13673,8216,3004,66071,4804,101,56,54,55,16623],"class_list":["post-142779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-2325","tag-al","tag-cup","tag-for","tag-horse","tag-melbourne","tag-racing","tag-riffa","tag-set","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}