Quickie begins long road towards Melbourne Cup
Today’s Memsie Stakes and its handicap equivalent have traditionally featured contenders heading towards the first Tuesday in November
The 2019 Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Mr Quickie (Shamus Award) begins his spring campaign in today’s Memsie Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield – a race which has been the most common launching pad for locally-trained Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winners this century.
The five-year-old is in “great order” for his return according to trainer Phillip Stokes and looms as the most likely Cup aspirant among this year’s 15-strong nomination for the $750,000 weight-for-age race.
“He’s forward enough for this, he’s had a couple of good jump-outs here at Pakenham and he has a very good record first-up so we thought the Memsie was a reasonable throw at the stumps rather than lumping the big weight (62.5 kilograms) in the handicap at the same trip,” Stokes told ANZ Bloodstock News.
As to the Melbourne Cup, Stokes says it’s not out of the question: “I wouldn’t say no. He’ll tell us where he’s going after he’s had a run or two but it’s on the agenda. You’re hoping, like everybody else, at this stage.
“It is possible we haven’t seen the best of him yet. He’s a back marker who needs some luck in his races and, it’s been nobody’s fault, but things haven’t gone his way on many occasions.”
That was certainly the case in last year’s Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) when he was blocked for clear running from the 400 metres to the 100 metres.
Mr Quickie, a $115,000 Dalziel Racing purchase from Rosemont Stud (who retained an interest in the horse) at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, defeated last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War) in his Derby success and maintained a high level of staying form, despite not winning, through the 2019 spring.
Six of the past 13 locally–trained Melbourne Cup winners began their spring campaigns in the Memsie Stakes – Prince Of Penzance (Pentire) (eighth), Fiorente (Monsun) (sixth), Green Moon (Montjeu) (fifth), Efficient (Zabeel) (tenth) along with Makybe Diva (Desert King) (fourth in 2004 before winning in 2005).
Makybe Diva resumed in the welter (now the handicap), at the same course and distance, finishing fourth on Memsie day in 2003 while Shocking (Street Cry) similarly resumed with a sixth in the corresponding race.
That race, today, includes one guaranteed Cup aspirant in Oceanex (Ocean Park) who is exempt from the ballot after winning the Andrew Ramsden Stakes (Listed, 2800m) in May along with “possibles” – the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Toffee Tongue (Tavistock) and Alister Clark Stakes (Gr 2, 2040m) victor Nonconformist (Rebel Raider).
Trainer Mick Price this week said the guarantee of a place in the Cup field afforded his owners the opportunity of a “great ride” and made less complicated his task of preparing the mare for Australia’s famous race.
“Knowing you’re in is a bonus. It’s good to have nice horses having a rhythm between trackwork and races. It’s a joy to know what you’re doing and where you’re going and to have a choice,” Price said on RSN927 in Melbourne.
Oceanex, a $70,000 Price purchase from Milan Park at the 2017 NZB Premier Yearling Sale, has raced just twice beyond 2040 metres for her past two starts: wins in the Ramsden and the Port Adelaide Cup (Listed, 2500m).
She was stepped up in trip on the recommendation of visiting English jockey Tom Marquand, who rode her when fifth in the JRA Plate (Gr 3, 2000m) at Randwick on April 18. “Hence we went to Adelaide where she was strong at the 2500 (metres) and then the Ramsden where she was very good at the end of 2800 metres. She told us, ‘train me like a stayer’,” Price said.
“She’s matured and matured,” the trainer continued. “She loves Flemington, and if there’s a true two miles in her then she’s certainly a top half-dozen chance (in the Cup). She’s sound and happy, she’s never looked better. She’s a mature, lovely mare now who’s got in the groove of the right tempo of staying horses. You’re entitled to be thinking the fat end of the race for sure.”
Price said the recent cancellation of Cranbourne trials forced his hand, which history says may be fortuitous, in running this week rather than resuming at 1600 metres in the Makybe Diva Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on September 12.
“I didn’t want to run her first-up in the Makybe Diva and take the edge off her. So, we go this Saturday; then the Makybe Diva into the Turnbull and then the Caulfield Cup,” he said.
The David Jolly-trained Spring Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Behemoth (All Too Hard) and the James Cummings-prepared Savatiano (Street Cry), a first-up winner of the P. B. Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), at the course and distance, head the betting for the Memsie Stakes.
Despite the proximity and identical conditions of the two races, Regal Roller (Regal Classic) in 2004 is the only horse to complete the double since Zambari (Pakistan II) in 1973 and Savatiano would become the first mare to achieve the distinction.
The Memsie Stakes was won seven years straight by horses resuming from a spell before 2017 when Vega Magic (Lope De Vega) won second-up from a return win in the Regal Roller Stakes (Listed, 1200m).
Humidor (Teofilo) then won the race second-up from an unplaced run in the Lawrence Stakes while, last year, Scales of Justice (Not A Single Doubt) won after taking the Bletchingly Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) first-up and then finishing second in South Australia’s Spring Stakes.
While the race is early in the new season, it’s generally not unpredictable. Thirteen favorites have won in the past 20 years with only two winners at double-figure odds.
Despite the strong Melbourne Cup connection, the race’s influence is minimal on the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m). Not one Caulfield Cup winner has contested the Memsie Stakes this decade while So You Think (High Chaparral) is the only Cox Plate winner to have competed in the Memsie – winning it, of course.