The weights were announced for the 2024 Melbourne Cup last week. Next weekend, we are set to see one of the more certain Melbourne Cup runners with the latest Golden Ticket on offer at Flemington.
Turnbull Stakes Day kicks off on October 5, a meeting giving us major hints towards the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Meeting Packed with Group Race Quality
The big spring races are well and truly underway now.
We’re really on red alert now for the 2024 Melbourne Cup and the next major meeting, at Flemington of all places, needs to be watched carefully with the Carnival in mind.
Turnbull Stakes Day comes up on Saturday, October 5. In the past, this meeting has proved to be a great yardstick for trainers looking to get their horses to Melbourne Cup week. A big day in its own right, this is also a major stepping stone.
More than $3 million is on offer in prize money across no fewer than ten races. $750,000 is shelled out in the feature race, the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes over 2000 metres. A cool million is offered for the winner of that race if they go on to also land the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.
Elsewhere on the card there are three Group 2 events. The Danehill Stakes over 1100 metres, the Gilgai Stakes over 1200m and the Edward Manifold Stakes over 1600. The event we’re watching with great interest however is the Bart Cummings Stakes
Golden Ticket on Offer
The 2500-metre Bart Cummings Stakes will garner plenty of interest on Turnbull Stakes Day.
A Group 3 event, it isn’t the highest quality race of the day in theory. It does however offer a ballot exemption for the Melbourne Cup to its winner. That makes it a very important race indeed.
At $500,000 for the total purse, this is a valuable race. Connections of contenders however are not so much concerned with that. Here, there is a guaranteed place in an $8.5m race up for grabs.
Since 2000, only two horses have actually won the Bart Cummings and gone on to double up in the Melbourne Cup. Winning here is a guarantee of a place in the field, not of further glory back at Flemington.
That being said, the last such winner was Almandin in 2016 which is fairly recent. Also, two winners in 17 renewals is a good record considering how many top lead-up races there are.
The 2024 Bart Cummings field isn’t known yet, but it will be the subject of great media attention next week.
For those outside of the expected weight range to get into the Melbourne Cup, winning this race is very important. We would also encourage you not to be too drawn on that.
Should a horse be guaranteed to pass the ballot anyway, winning this race isn’t the main deal. A good run and a strong prep is all-important though, so look out for highly-rated individuals handling the track well and finishing the race strongly.
