Melbourne Cup Aim For Big Orange

Trainer Michael Bell’s exciting stayer Big Orange (GB) (Duke of Marmalade {Ire}) will fly to Australia Oct. 8 for his assignment in the Nov. 3 G1 Melbourne Cup, his conditioner said. The 4-year-old gelding has won this season’s G2 Princess of Wales’s S. and G2 Goodwood Cup, and was most recently seventh of eight in the G2 Lonsdale Cup Aug. 21.

“He’s in quarantine now; all is going well,” said Bell. “He’s not going to have a prep run, he’s going to be running off the plane. He flies out on Oct. 8 so he’ll have plenty of time to acclimatize when he gets there.”

In other news surrounding the ‘race that stops a nation,’ Khalid Abdullah’s British shipper Snow Sky (GB) (Nayef) is already Down Under, and could take in the Oct. 17 G1 Caulfield Cup as a prep for the Melbourne Cup.

“Snow Sky apparently traveled over very well and is in good shape so far, but we will wait and see how things go over the next few days,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Khalid Abdullah. “The Melbourne Cup is something that we have looked at for a while and it seems sensible to take on the Caulfield Cup if he has a good run into it with no hiccups. If he is not tip-top for that then he will have a straight run in the Melbourne Cup, but the intention is to take in the Caulfield Cup first.”