Australia: Parchment Party goes for longshot try at Melbourne Cup

Two stakes wins by Parchment Party in long-distance stakes at Saratoga in June and August have not impressed Australian bettors in advance of Monday’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse.

As of Thursday, Parchment Party was a 40-1 outsider in an expected field of 24 in the $6.55 million Melbourne Cup, run at two miles on turf.

Parchment Party, a 4-year-old colt trained by Bill Mott, is winless in two starts on turf. He was ninth of 11 in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida Stakes at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Gulfstream Park on March 1 in his latest start on the surface.

The Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most popular race, is a handicap. Parchment Party has been assigned 114.6 pounds, well below topweight Al Riffa at 130.

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Half Yours, the early 9-2 favorite, will carry 116.8, while Valiant King, 5-1 as of Thursday, will carry 112.2 pounds.

Parchment Party, who races for Pin Oak Stud, earned a berth to the Melbourne Cup with an 8 3/4-length win in the Grade 3 Belmont Gold Cup at 1 3/4 miles at Saratoga on June 6. The race was scheduled for turf, but was moved to the main track and run on a sloppy and sealed surface.

Parchment Party won the Birdstone Stakes at 1 3/4 miles on dirt by a length at Saratoga on Aug. 6 in his final start in the United States before he was sent to Australia. John Velazquez rode Parchment Party to the Saratoga wins and is scheduled to have the mount in the Melbourne Cup.

Half Yours vaulted to the fore of the Melbourne Cup field by beating 17 rivals in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Caulfield Racecourse on Oct. 18. Half Yours closed from ninth to win by a half-length.

On Oct. 4, Half Yours was fourth in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at 1 1/4 miles at Flemington, finishing about 2 3/4 lengths behind Sir Delius, who at the time was the early favorite for the Melbourne Cup.

Sir Delius was withdrawn from Melbourne Cup consideration in October after an international veterinary panel ruled that the multiple Group 1 winner was at a “heightened risk of injury.”

Aside from Half Yours and Valiant King, who was third by 1 1/2 lengths in the Caulfield Cup, there is support for the Irish shipper Al Riffa (6-1) and Buckaroo (7-1).

Al Riffa, trained by Joseph O’Brien, was the four-length winner of the Group 1 Irish St. Leger Stakes at the Curragh in September.

Buckaroo, who will carry 125.6 pounds in the Melbourne Cup, was second by a head to Via Sistina, the 2024-25 Australian Horse of the Year, in a thrilling running of the Group 1 Cox Plate at about 1 1/4 miles at Moonee Valley on Oct. 25. The $3.89 million Cox Plate is Australia’s leading weight-for-age race at 1 1/4 miles.

Via Sistina is not part of the Melbourne Cup field.

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