The 150th Caulfield Cup is run over 2400 metres at Caulfield on Saturday 17 October for $6.55 million, with $3.3 million to the winner. It drew 124 nominations when entries closed in August — 24 Group 1 winners among them, and 32 trained overseas.
First acceptances close on Tuesday 22 September. Second acceptances follow on 6 October and the final field is declared on 13 October, with a limit of 18 runners. Tomorrow is the first point at which this stops being a list and starts being a race.
The weights
Weights were released on Thursday 17 September. Sir Delius is topweight at 59kg — Racing Victoria’s David Hegan calling him “a three-time Group 1 winner… the best performed horse” in the race.
Buckaroo and Light Infantry Man carry 57kg, Birdman and Aeliana 56.5kg, Sons and Lovers 56kg, Green Spaces 54.5kg. Separate weight scales apply across the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups for a second straight year, because Sir Delius is not nominated for Flemington.
Half Yours: the weight, and the detour
Half Yours won both Cups last year for Tony and Calvin McEvoy. He sits sixth in the Caulfield Cup order of entry — but he has been given 59kg in the Melbourne Cup, which Racing Victoria describes as effectively 4.5kg more than he carried when he won it.
Calvin McEvoy, on 17 September: “It’s really unfortunate… we want the winner from the previous year to be competitive the next year, don’t we?” His plan: “We’re going to go to the Turnbull” — the Group 1 at Flemington on 3 October — and decide from there.
He is not currently quoted in the Caulfield Cup market. That is a consequence of the Turnbull-first plan rather than a withdrawal, but it is worth noting before anyone writes him into the race.
Who is in the market
Zahrann heads it at $5, from Saint George $9, with Aeliana and The Euphrates at $13 and Birdman at $15 — Birdman having won the Group 1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield on 19 September for Chris Waller and Ben Melham.
Exempt from the ballot at the top of the order of entry: Enfjaar, Royal Supremacy and Kings Valley, all Irish-trained. Green Spaces, the Australian Derby winner, is nominated and could become the first since Mongolian Khan to take a Derby and a Caulfield Cup in the same year.
