Melbourne Cup 2016 – European Challenge

We have 7/1 and 22/1 Melbourne Cup tips including full writeups for both our tips.

The $6 million Melbourne Cup is the biggest race on the Australian racing calendar and a full field of 24 runners will line up. Among those runners are a talented group of European-trained thoroughbreds who are all paying great money to win and we think they could dominate the 3200m staying affair.

• Oceanographer (7/1) has been the best-backed runner in the field. The Charlie Appleby-trained gelding kicked off his Australian campaign with a third placing behind stablemate Qewy in the Geelong Cup, which has always been a strong guide to the Melbourne Cup, but it was the win at Flemington on Saturday which forced bookmakers to adjust their lines.  The son of Sea The Stars won the Group 3 Lexus Stakes with a great show of speed down the Flemington straight. Jockey Kerrin McEvoy settled him near the back of the field before presenting him to the middle of the track in the straight. Oceanographer did the rest and steadily hauled in Tom Melbourne to grab the prize on the line. That run suggested he wouldn’t have any problems getting the distance and he could give Godolphin that much-awaited first Melbourne Cup win.
• Bondi Beach (9/1) looks to be the best of the Europeans.  O’Brien has yet to have any success in the Melbourne Cup, but the five-year-old horse looks to have matured since running 16th last year and his recent form has been solid. He put back-to-back wins together earlier in the year and his run for third in the Enterprise Stakes was good. He drops in weight for this which will help, but winning a Melbourne Cup is on another level. He will need to improve on its recent efforts, but multiple Melbourne Cup-winning owner Lloyd Williams has purchased the horse with James Magnier and that’s a strong indication that he will be ready to fire in the Cup.
•  Heartbreak City (14/1) is another strong visitor who produced one of the better performances of the season in the Ebor Handicap at York. The Tony Martin-trained gelding put four lengths on the quality field, showing that even though his recent form had come over hurdles, that can stack up nicely for the staying races at this time of the year. Max Dynamite was a hurdler and he ran second in the 2015 Melbourne Cup, so there’s no reason Heartbreak City can’t continue the trend. He has been drawn wide in barrier 23, but that shouldn’t deter punters as champion jockey Joao Moreira is in the saddle and there’s a long run to the first turn at Flemington so there’s plenty of time to find a nice position.

• Big Orange (16/1) is another strong international chance, having finished fifth in the 2015 Melbourne Cup despite setting a slow pace in front. The Michael Bell-trained gelding is better suited running a solid tempo in front, which gets the chasing horses off the bit, but they ran too slowly last year and the 16/1 odds are very appealing this time around. Bell has indicated that the six-year-old has matured nicely this season and his win in the Goodwood Cup was bullish. No horse since Vintage Crop has won the Melbourne Cup without a run in Australia during its preparation, but Big Orange looks a chance to buck the trend.