2023 PB Lawrence Stakes Results: Cox Plate Hope Mr Brightside Salutes First-Up
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Only eight horses in history have done it and on Tuesday British raider Ruscello will attempt to win the Lexus Stakes – 2013 Melbourne Cup double.
Just last Saturday the Ed Walker-trained five-year-old earned an 11th hour shot at the $6 million Group 1 Emirates Melbourne Cup (3200m) when they earned a ballot free ride in the 24-horse field with their Group 3 Lexus Stakes (2500m) win at Flemington.
It was the gelding’s second run down under after a very close second at Caulfield last month, and obviously their first look at the famous Flemington course.
Not having been tested at Group level in Europe yet, Ruscello was a triple figure roughie in Melbourne Cup odds pre-Lexus.
But their gritty long neck win in the Derby Day handicap convinced connections, including Australia’s OTI Racing, they were worthy of a shot at the ‘race that stops a nation’.
They made a final acceptance then, which would push the Bart Cummings-trained Precedence out of the Cup field for the first time in four years, and now Ruscello gets their chance to become the sixth internationally-trained Melbourne Cup winner.
They are still rough in the markets though paying $61 to upset a crack field, arguably the best we’ve seen in recent years, and have work to do after drawing the ‘visitor’s gate’ 24 of 24.
Young apprentice hoop Chad Schofield, who only just won the Cox Plate at 19-years-old, replaces Ruscello’s Lexus jockey Kerrin McEvoy and is thrilled with the chance.
“It doesn’t get any better than this, I have to pinch myself, it’s a dream come true,” Schofield told The Daily Telegraph.
“I had six or seven Cup offers, and Ruscello actually wasn’t one of them, but when he won the Lexus, I walked straight up to connections of the horse and told them to put my name in hat. Then I got the ride a couple of hours later. It’s terrific.
So can they overcome the odds against them and score a boilover in the roughest Melbourne Cup result in decades?
Think Ruscello has some claims at an upset win, or even a top four finish? Try them in the exotic Melbourne Cup betting markets now open at our preferred online bookie Ladbrokes.com.au!
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