Unsurprisingly, three are from the Darren Weir stable and the other with the Liam Howley-Lloyd Williams operation. Furrion, Kemono and Tosen Basil step out for Weir while Orderofthegarter represents Macedon Lodge.

And as early as next weekend we are likely to see the first of a multitude of 2018 international runners with the Charlie Appleby trained Godolphin horses Folkswood and Jungle Cat expected to run at Caulfield. They arrived last week with stablemate Blair House.

The northern hemisphere bred Furrion, a winner four of five starts, jumps from a Benchmark 78 success to an open handicap at Flemington and yet was marked as short as $2.30 in early markets.

Furrion, by Camelot, was purchased by John Foote for the equivalent of $76,000 at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and did not appear for the first time until 18 months later. “He might need a smidgin of luck from barrier one but the horse is in great shape and has plenty of upside,” Weir said.

His opposition includes Orderofthegarter who, in contrast, will have to deal with the second outside gate. The stable has already announced that the son of Galileo will be ridden forward which looks a plus, in a race devoid of high speed, pending the day’s racing pattern. Rain, and it is forecast, to ease the ground would also be a plus for the five-year-old.

Orderofthegarter, bred by Barronstown Stud, is lightly raced and sharper than most Williams imports. He thrashed stablemate and Sandown Classic winner The Taj Mahal (who runs in today’s Makybe Diva) in the Leopardstown Guineas Trial last year and the form through his Royal Ascot Hampton Court Stakes second to Benbatl via the winner along with Mirage Dancer, The Taj Mahal and Exultant stamps him as an almost certain stakes winner in Australia. Similar form credentials, incidentally, accompany Blair House.

The Howley-Williams team is 0-17 this season and indeed haven’t won a race since May but I’d expect that to change as the spring heat intensifies.

The Northern Farm bred Tosen Basil contests the Makybe Diva Stakes at 1600 metres which Weir has warned is likely to be ‘too short’ for him but he is marked as a Cups horse with that credential established via his 2017 Hong Kong Vase third to the hardy and accomplished Highland Reel and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic.

Weir, in the Group 1 Makybe Diva, is also represented by Memsie Stakes winner Humidor plus the ruling Caulfield Cup favourite King’s Will Dream and the seemingly out of favour Black Heart Bart.

However the last named appeals as the speculative bet at $31 given his Memsie effort was better than it looks and Weir has won this the past two years with horses who were unplaced in the Memsie Stakes. “He’s finally fit enough,” Weir said of Black Heart Bart.

Weir is also expecting better from a fitter Kemono with the former Japanese sprinter needing to live up to the hype on the minimum in the Bobbie Lewis Quality which is the first of the four Group races on the Flemington programme.

The Let’s Elope Stakes, for the mares, is the second of the Group races and if you fancy betting to precedents then this is straightforward with 15 of the past 20 winners coming through the Cockram Stakes which augurs well for I Am A Star and Petition with the latter well advantaged if the track has softened by race six.

Meanwhile, we are blessed to see the great Winx in action again in the Colgate Optic White Stakes (nee George Main) which she’s won in each of the past two years en route to her Cox Plate victories.

She can, at least, repel the international invasion and – for the record – I agree with trainer Michael Kent’s assertion this week that the international numbers in the Melbourne Cup are now too great.

I’m sure it was never the original intention to have them comprise half the field. If they were the best dozen stayers in the world then that would be fine but they ain’t and never will be.

But more on that next week when I say what I really think about the Melbourne Cup!