Lloyd Williams (Image: Racing Photos)
Lloyd Williams quest for an eighth Melbourne Cup later this year gained momentum on Friday with two leading contenders on an incoming flight to Australia while Master of Reality won a stakes race in Northern Ireland.
Melbourne Cup candidates Pondus and Dawn Patrol are among nine Williams-owned horses currently en route to Melbourne after flying out of England on Friday.
The horses will complete their mandatory 14 days of post-export quarantine at Mickleham before being prepared by Robert Hickmott from Macedon Lodge, the facility where Hickmott trained Green Moon and Almandin to Melbourne Cup success in 2012 and 2016.
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A Group 1 winning son of Galileo himself and a brother to a pair of European Group 1 winners, it is any wonder The United States is making an impact at Stud – in South Africa.
Originally trained by Aidan O’Brien, Lloyd Williams acquired the stallion in late 2013 after winning three of his four starts in Europe. He would go on to win the G1 Ranvet Stakes in 2016 and also win the Moonee Valley Gold Cup and Crystal Mile, as well as finish second in the 2016 Queen Elizabeth Stakes behind Lucia Valentina.
But what ever happened to the striking chestnut who had his swansong when finishing fifth in the Hong Kong QEII Cup? Dr Bennie van der Merwe, owner of Moutonshoek Stud in South Africa explains.
Lloyd Williams eyes Macedon nursery for Melbourne Cup imports
Lloyd Williams eyes Macedon nursery for Melbourne Cup imports by Gilbert Gardiner Record Cup-winning owner Lloyd Williams with Kerrin McEvoy Image: Getty
Melbourne Cup record-holder Lloyd Williams could use Macedon Lodge as a nursery for young European stayers, amid the uncertain future of spring internationals.
Williams, like most purveyors of northern hemisphere stayers, has resisted setting plans in stone for the release of Racing Victoria’s reformatory review into the death rate of international Cup horses.
Recommendations will include enhanced screening of imports, prior to departure and upon arrival, and potentially a restriction or cap on racing in Australia prior to the Cup.
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REVIEW HAS POTENTIAL TO REKINDLE THE MELBOURNE CUP
February 4, 2021 5:13 pm
By Matt Stewart, Racing Editor
In less than eight weeks,
Racing Victoria will lay bare its new rules for international horses.
Whatever is revealed, whether that
Werribee is retained or abandoned, vet checks are ramped up or entry dates are dramatically changed, the new rules will dramatically change the look and feel of the spring carnival, and most notably the Melbourne Cup.
Those who believe the internationalisation of the Cup has reached plague proportions – where foreign horses have represented half of some Cup fields – will be confident that numbers are about to be severely-reined in.