Caulfield Cup winner and Japanese superstar Mer De Glace continues to fluctuate in Melbourne Cup betting ahead of the $7 million race that stops a nation on Tuesday.

Hisashi Shimizu’s five-year-old firmed all the way into $6.50 following Saturday’s barrier draw before drifting slightly on Monday back out to the $7.00 mark. Even so, the Japanese stayer remains the favourite in barrier two and looks extremely tough to beat as he looks to claim his seventh win on the trot.

Jockey Damian Lane will be in the saddle again after scouting the horse back in June. Lane rode Mer De Glace to a win in the Group 3 Naruo Kinen (2000m) at Hanshin and quickly convinced owners to make the trip to Australia.

Mer De Glace lived up to the hype in the Caulfield Cup, blazing past a field of homegrown and international talent to win comfortably by a length.

Shimizu provided an update prior to Mer De Glace’s grand final run and started off by saying the horse is fit and firing for a step up in trip.

“He’s been well, nothing to be worried about. He’s started working straight away, he’s very well,” Shimizu told Racing.com through a translator on Monday.

The Caulfield has long been a steppingstone for top class stayers eyeing Australia’s grandest prize. Eleven horses have completed the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double, with Ethereal being the most recent to do so in 2001.

Shimizu went on to say that the Caulfield Cup was Mer De Glace’s main target but after showing so much promise and improvement in the run, the stable had no other choice but to look ahead to that one famous Tuesday in November.

“When we left Japan, we didn’t really have the primary goal for those races, but we wanted to have a horse close to 100% for the Caulfield Cup. If those ran well of course we’d look into the Melbourne Cup, but we didn’t really have a priority or anything like that” Shimizu said.

Several pundits have knocked Mer De Glace’s chances in the Cup suggesting the step up in trip could prove too much. The stable have never ventured past the 2400m mark but Shimizu is feeling confident Lane can bring out the best in his horse.

“I’ve been asked this question a million times in the last few days” Shimizu said.

“It’s very hard to say, of course the horse has to just run to see how he handles it, but I believe in the horse and the jockey. He should be able to handle it.”

Tuesday’s race is as much a big deal for Shimizu as it is for Japanese racing as a whole. After Mer De Glace won the Caulfield Cup, Lys Gracieux backed up with a convincing win in the Cox Plate a week later.

Japan is now looking for a clean sweep of the Spring Carnival’s “Big 3” and although Shimizu said he’s feeling the pressure of his home country, he’s also very excited about the future for Japanese racing.

Japanese racing and clean sweep of the three biggest races of the Spring Carnival: “it feels like I’m carrying the Japanese flag. It is great that Japanese horses have been racing so well all over the world. Obviously, the Japanese quota is going up and improving every year and we have very good quality with thoroughbreds. I really don’t want to stop this moment for Japanese horses and hopefully we can get a good result for Japan.”

Complete 2019 Melbourne Cup odds can be viewed here courtesy of Ladbrokes.com.au.
2019 Lexus Melbourne Cup Field 

#	Form (Last 10)	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Barrier	Weight
1	12x1x1x434	CROSS COUNTER (GB)	Charlie Appleby	William Buick	5	57.5kg
2	211x11x1x1	MER DE GLACE (JPN)	Hisashi Shimizu	Damian Lane	2	56kg
3	7250×14335	MASTER OF REALITY (IRE)	Joseph O’Brien	Frankie Dettori	1	55.5kg
4	2x0x1322x3	MIRAGE DANCER (GB)	Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young	Ben Melham	13	55.5kg
5	37×3264413	SOUTHERN FRANCE (IRE)	Ciaron Maher & David Eustace	Mark Zahra	14	55.5kg
6	3344465881	HUNTING HORN (IRE)	Aidan O’Brien	Seamie Heffernan	11	55kg
7	220×344216	LATROBE (IRE)	Joseph O’Brien	James McDonald	22	55kg
8	4x1x723516	MUSTAJEER (GB)	Kris Lees	Damien Oliver	6	55kg
9	251557×790	ROSTROPOVICH (IRE)	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Dwayne Dunn	12	55kg
10	423x2411x7	TWILIGHT PAYMENT (IRE)	Joseph O’Brien	Hugh Bowman	19	55kg
11	x1x34x5125	FINCHE (GB)	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	4	54kg
12	8x49x58321	PRINCE OF ARRAN (GB)	Charlie Fellowes	Michael Walker	8	54kg
13	1x6x237x4x	RAYMOND TUSK (IRE)	Richard Hannon	Jamie Spencer	3	54kg
14	x196112x31	DOWNDRAFT (IRE)	Joseph O’Brien	John Allen	15	53.5kg
15	2×53220224	MAGIC WAND (IRE)	Aidan O’Brien	Ryan Moore	24	53.5kg
16	2x30x80709	NEUFBOSC (FR)	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Luke Nolen	23	53.5kg
17	00x048x070	SOUND (GER)	Michael Moroney	James Winks	10	53.5kg
18	1514132×41	SURPRISE BABY (NZ)	Paul Preusker	Jordan Childs	20	53.5kg
19	531×212224	CONSTANTINOPLE (IRE)	David & B Hayes & T Dabernig	Joao Moreira	7	52.5kg
20	322×17135	IL PARADISO (USA)	Aidan O’Brien	Wayne Lordan	17	52.5kg
21	x11111x467	STEEL PRINCE (IRE)	Anthony Freedman	Brett Prebble	16	52.5kg
22	0141×59195	THE CHOSEN ONE (NZ)	Murray Baker & Andrew Forsman	Tim Clark	18	52kg
23	1x36621x42	VOW AND DECLARE	Danny O’Brien	Craig Williams	21	52kg
24	x059x87873	YOUNGSTAR	Chris Waller	Tommy Berry	9	52kg