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A demolition job in the Bendigo Cup results on Wednesday should be enough to get Harry Eustace‘s UK raider Sea King into the Group 1 $8.56 million Lexus Melbourne Cup field on Tuesday.

Before this year’s Group 3 $500,000 Bendigo Cup (2400m), the Sea The Starts gelding was 31st on the Melbourne Cup order of entry for the November 5 classic at Flemington.

Having passed the first ballot clause for the 164th running of the ‘Race That Stops a Nation’ with his powerhouse Bendigo victory, Sea King is set to move up the order of entry.

He is currently allocated 50kg and, if penalised for his Bendigo Cup success, should have done enough to get a coveted spot in the 24-horse Melbourne Cup 2024 field.

“It’s incredibly exciting. A lot was riding on it, it’s the last win-and-you’re-in for the Cup, so it’s an absolute dream result today,” Eustace told Racing.com.

“I’d just like to thank Terry (Henderson) in particular, he managed to buy this horse just before Docklands travelled down as well and it’s proving a pretty inspired purchase.

“Curiously, coming down, we never even thought we’d get close (to gaining a Melbourne Cup start) and, of course, since we’ve been here the Cup, as everyone is well aware, has really started cutting up, so the closer we got to getting in the more pressure there was I suppose.”

With Declan Bates in the saddle, Sea King travelled sweetly throughout in his first Australian assignment after being slow out but settling well before letting loose at the top of the straight to impress with his big finish.

Getting out to a lengthy lead at the 400m having built himself into the race at the right time, he continued with a sustained run, and nothing got close to running him down.

“We were hoping to be forward in the run, but he lacked that bit of tactical early speed so I had to just work on getting him to settle from then and he travelled very strongly in the run and any time the tempo came out of it he just wanted to get going,” Bates said.

“I tried to nurse him as long as I could but from about the 1000 I just tried to slowly build into it, but he’s just probably got that bit of class compared to a lot of these.

“He basically just nicely worked into the race, we got the front a lot earlier than I would have liked, but I think I was just on the superior stayer.”

On the line Sea King ($5.50), whose previous start was a sixth in the prestigious Ebor Handicap behind Magical Zoe, had nearly four lengths to spare on his closet rival Berkely Square ($6) with Star Vega ($11) third.

“It was just a beautiful ride from Dec Bates,” Eustace said.

“We picked him because hopefully he’d understand the European style and it wouldn’t be a sit-and-sprint. He just gave him a great ride and rode him full of coincidence.”

Bates is already set to partner Mahrajaan on 52kg in the Melbourne Cup field, with word that Hollie Doyle will partner Sea King taking the number of female riders in this year’s race up to a record five.

“It’d want to be a pretty big penalty for me (to be able to ride him) but best of luck to them and I think he’ll be running a massive race,” Bates said.

Sea King has firmed into $11 in the latest all-in Melbourne Cup odds at Ladbrokes.

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