Irish trainer Luca Cumani has told Racing Victoria Mount Athos is on his way back to Australia for another crack at the ‘race that stops a nation’.
Mount Athos was a luckless runner in last year’s Melbourne Cup in which he flashed home to finish 5th behind Green Moon.
The Montjeu 6YO won the Group 3 Ormonde Stakes (2700m) at Chester 1st up by 9 lengths back in May.
Cumani said attention will now turn to how he can get Mount Athos to Melbourne in the best possible shape for this year’s staying championship.
Cumani has confirmed Mount Athos will have two more runs in Britain including the Glorious Stakes at Goodwood on August 3, before tackling the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes (2670m) at Newbury on August 17, a race he won last year before coming down under.
“He went into the Cup fresh last year and I think we will do a similar thing this time. We will use the same idea and keep him fresh after the Geoffrey Freer,” Cumani said.
Mount Athos is currently equal second favourite at $12.00 in the pre-nomination cup market with the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente, who blitzed the field in a Randwick trial last Friday morning.
Early Melbourne Cup favourite is the Darren Weir-trained French import – Puissance De Lune at $9.00
By Owens Wong
