Raymond Tusk makes the Melbourne Cup field!

Tue 29 Oct 2019

It has certainly been a nervous few weeks for ourselves, Richard Hannon and our Raymond Tusk owners, hoping that he would make the field for Group 1 A$8 Million Melbourne Cup - Australia's premier staying race over 2 miles (3,200m.)

After his superb and slightly unlucky 4th place in the £1million Ebor; recording a career best performance according to Timeform (who gave him a rating of 122), we were clear that he should head 'down under' to target 'The race that stops a Nation!'

Having competed with credit in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, the St Leger and the Coral Eclipse, our Group 2 winner has already given his 15 owners some thrills of a lifetime as a racehorse syndicate, also earning over £250,000 of race prize money for them too! When we bought him as a yearling with Peter and Ross Doyle, as with all our yearling purchases, the dreaming started and he is once again testament to the fact that for a 2.5% share purchase you can race at the very highest levels with our horses!

His racing manager Tim Palin says "Having a runner in Australia’s 'race that stops the nation' has been a long held dream for many an MPR owner, and we are delighted to announce that we believe we finally have a live contender for their $8 million dollar, 3200-metre race. There’s been a huge groundswell of interest in Raymond from the Men (and women) Down Under, the substance of which caused us to have a slight rethink about our original plan to run in the Group 1 Irish St Leger at Irish Champions’ Weekend. From the noted interest levels, it seems 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and we hope that he and his lucky owners enjoy their Southern Hemisphere journey."

After spending time in quarantine both in Newmarket pre flight and in Werribee, on the outskirts of Melbourne since his arrival, we have enjoyed watching him do his daily leg stretches or rolls in the sand! He has Joe Kington from Richard's stables with him riding him out (pictured) and looking after him superbly, as in every photo we have seen, his coat is absolutely gleaming. 

Today, he had a mile breeze with his race jockey Jamie Spencer in the saddle. Afterwards Jamie did an interview about him and his chances. You can watch that here: https://www.racing.com/videos/2019-10-29/jamie-spencer-on-raymond-tusk

Read the latest story on the Racing Post here: https://www.racingpost.com/news/international/excitement-builds-for-middleham-park-as-raymond-tusk-takes-aim-at-melbourne-cup/406450.

Keep up to date by following us on Twitter and Facebook, as we have partnered with World Horse Racing, who will be reporting on Raymond and his owners' experiences!