Leading Victorian trainer Darren Weir has ruled out last year’s winner Humidor and is also unlikely to accept for Tosen Stardom in next month’s Australian Cup 2018.

Last Melbourne Festival of Racing, Weir prepared the race favourite Humidor for his quarter-length victory over Caulfield Cup winning mare Jameka in Flemington’s Group 1 $1 million Australian Cup (2000m).

A chance for the spring’s brave Ladbrokes Cox Plate runner-up to Winx, Humidor, to defend his title and chase successive Australian Cup wins on March 10 for the first time since Vo Rogue (1989-90) has been ruled out by Weir.

The Teofilo five-year-old hasn’t raced since his disappointing 19^th to Rekindling in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) last November, but is down to resume Saturday week at Caulfield on in the Group 1 $500,000 Futurity Stakes (1400m).

“He’s just a fortnight behind the rest of them,” Weir told RSN’s Racing Pulse on Friday.

“He’ll run next Saturday in the Futurity, go into the Blamey and then head up to Sydney.”

The Group 2 $200,000 Blamey Stakes (1600m) runs at Flemington on March 17 and was won last year by the Weir-trained Palentino over Tosen Stardom and Harlem.

Tosen Stardom is also an unlikely runner for Weir in this year’s Australian Cup field after the Toorak Handicap – Emirates Stakes winning Japanese import’s tough first-up run last weekend.

The Deep Impact seven-year-old kicked off his autumn in the Group 1 Ladbrokes C.F. Orr Stakes (1400m) and had a gut-buster from the outside barrier (13) to finish two and a quarter-lengths away 11^th to Hartnell.

Weir is now looking at bypassing the Australian Cup with the entire and instead starting Tosen Stardom second-up the following weekend against Humidor in the Blamey Stakes.

“He’s alright now but it’s obviously not the ideal way to start a preparation,” “He’ll be fine but we’ll just poke around with him and probably change plans a bit now and maybe go to the Blamey to give him some time to get over the run and then head up to Sydney for the Carnival.

“It [the Australian Cup] is unlikely, I’m not set in concrete with that but knowing how horses need to have the first-up run to get to their goal, it wasn’t the ideal run so I’d say it will be hard to get to the Australian Cup in the right order.”

Tosen Stardom was a one-time favourite in futures Australian Cup betting but has eased out in the markets that now have another Weir runner, Gailo Chop, as the top fancy.

Fellow seven-year-old Gailo Chop also resumed racing on February 10, the Caulfield Stakes winner taking out the Group 3 TS Carlyon Cup (1600m) by over a length defeating Harlem (2^nd) and Lord Fandango (3^rd).

To get behind Weir’s autumn carnival horses at the right prices over the coming months head to Ladbrokes.com.au.