Australia: Gold Trip scores big upset, heads to Melbourne Cup

Gold Trip ended a five-race losing streak since the Group 1 Melbourne Cup last November with a surprise win in Saturday’s Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia.

The win is part of a campaign through the Australian spring designed to prepare Gold Trip for the $4.97 Melbourne Cup on Nov. 7.

Gold Trip ($61 in American pools) closed from last of 16 to win the Turnbull by 1 3/4 lengths over the British shipper West Wind Blows, who was 5-1. Romantic Warrior, the 1-2 favorite, finished fourth.

The $477,800 Turnbull Stakes at 1 1/4 miles was Gold Trip’s sixth start of the year and the first time he finished in the first three since a second in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes at Sandown Racecourse in February.

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The win in the Turnbull understandably pushed Gold Trip onto the list of leading contenders for the Melbourne Cup at two miles.

Gold Trip was ridden by Mark Zahra for trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.

Two other stakes in Australia on Saturday had major ramifications for the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most popular race.

Future History, trained by Maher and Eustace, won the Group 3 Bart Cummings Stakes at 1 9/16 miles to earn an automatic berth to the Melbourne Cup.

Ridden by Craig Williams, Future History ($21.80) won the $318,500 Bart Cummings Stakes by three-quarters of a length over 2-1 favorite First Immortal. Serpentine, the winner of the 2020 English Derby, finished third at 10-1.

At Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney, Montefilia ($5.50) edged 3-1 Hoo Ya Mal by a half-length to win the Group 2 Petamula Hill Stakes for her first win in 20 months.

Ridden by Nash Rawiller for trainer Chris Waller, Montefilia won her fifth Group 1 race in the $1.27 million Hill Stakes at 1 3/16 miles. A 6-year-old Australian-bred mare by Kermadec, Montefilia was sold for approximately $2.29 million at auction in May and now races for Yulong Investments.

Hoo Ya Mal and Montefilia were 12th and 16th in the 2022 Melbourne Cup.

Rawiller had a memorable day at Rosehill Gardens. In the race following the Hill Stakes, Rawiller rode Cepheus ($13.60) to a nose win over 7-1 Cotehele in the newly-created $955,600 Alan Brown Stakes, a handicap at seven furlongs.

Cepheus is being pointed for the $1.91 million Big Dance Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse on Sydney on Nov. 7.

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