A line-up of potential Melbourne Cup horses faces off in the Geelong Cup 2020 field this Wednesday looking to win their way into the ‘race that stops a nation’ on the first Tuesday of November.

Shared Ambition is one of the best fancied of the local hopes in Wednesday’s 2020 Geelong Cup field. Photo: Steve Hart.

The Group 3 $400,000 Geelong Cup (2400m) field features 11 quality stayers this spring including a number of internationally-trained or imported overseas gallopers out to steal the show.

The internationals have a strong record in the Geelong Cup including the back-to-back wins by French raiders American (2010) and Dunaden (2011) who both went on to win the iconic two-mile Melbourne Cup race at Flemington.

The Geelong Cup form was also franked in the world’s richest handicap last year by another visitor with the UK-trained winner Prince Of Arran going on to run second to Vow And Declare in the 2019 Melbourne Cup results.

This year the bookies are predicting another success by the international contingent with the Andreas Wohler-trained German galloper Ashrun sitting top of the Geelong Cup odds at $3.70 through Ladbrokes.com.au.

Wholer is no stranger to success down under having prepared the 2014 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist.

He is back in 2020 with another quality runner in Ashrun, the Authorized stallion to be ridden first-up in the Geelong Cup field by last year’s Melbourne Cup winning jockey Craig Williams.

A European four-year-old, the horse has won three of his 11 starts to date and was last seen running an eye-catching second with more weight in the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay (3000m) in France on August 23.

The danger in Geelong Cup betting this season is the recent Trent Busuttin & Natalie Young-trained import Skyward ($5) debuting down under.

The in-form William Pike partners the consistent Camelot five-year-old who chases his fifth victory at start number eight in the mile and a half showdown.

French-bred and formerly trained in France by Fabrice Chappet, Skyward won the Group 3 Prix De Reux (2500m) in fine fashion two back before his fourth in the Group 2 Prix Foy (2400m) in mid-September.

That form was franked in Australia last Saturday with the winner Anthony Van Dyck running second to Verry Elleegant carrying the top weight in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m).

Following closely at $6 to win Wednesday’s Victorian feature race is another formerly overseas-trained expat, Le Don De Vie for Sam & Anthony Freedman.

Jockey Ben Melham, fresh off a Caulfield Cup Day treble, has the ride on the last start August Stakes winner who looks well-weighted coming back from 59.5kg to 58kg.

In a wide-open race a further three runners are under double-figures with the early market mover Shared Ambition ($9) for Chris Waller, the Matthew Cumani-trained top weight San Huberto ($9) drawn barrier one, and Steel Prince ($9.50) coming off back-to-back Group 3 thirds in the Naturalism and The Bart Cummings.

Click here for the latest Geelong Cup 2020 betting odds courtesy of Ladbrokes.com.au.

2020 Geelong Cup Field

Table Credit: Racing Australia.