Mullins Backed For Dream International Double
All three Irish raiders are seeing support with BOYLE Sports ahead of Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse. The ‘race that stops a nation’ is set to get underway at 4:00 am (GMT) with a maximum field of 24 tackling the two-mile trip, and Irish-trained Al Riffa is set to start as second favourite. Trainer Joseph O’Brien is already a dual winner of the race, with Rekindling snatching victory in 2017 and Twilight Payment scoring in 2020 for the Kilkenny-based yard.
Al Riffa is a 6/1 shot to bring up a hat-trick of wins for O’Brien and will be partnered by Australian jockey Mark Zahra, who won back-to-back renewals of the race in 2022/23.
O’Brien is also set to field the JP McManus-owned Goodie Two Shoes, who was last seen finishing third in the Lillie Langtry Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and is a 25/1 shot for big race glory on Tuesday.
Third Time The Charm For Absurde
Punters, however, are keenest of all on Willie Mullins’s sole representative, Absurde, who is running in the race for a third consecutive year. Having finished fifth in 2024 and seventh in 2023, the son of Fastnet Rock is a 14/1 chance to break his Melbourne duck, with some bettors snapping up odds of 20/1 just days ago.
Mullins, who trained the 25/1 shot Ethical Diamond to win Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, is no stranger to success down under, having won the Melbourne Cup consolation, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, with True Self in 2019.
Brian O’Keeffe, spokesperson for BOYLE Sports, said:
“It was a weekend that Willie Mullins and the Heffernan family will never forget after Ethical Diamond conquered the turf at the Breeders' Cup, but the fun isn’t over yet. The party rolls on to the Melbourne Cup, where Absurde is attracting plenty of support to cap off a dream globetrotting double.”
Melbourne Cup (4:00 am, Flemington) – E/W 1-2-3-4-5
11/2 Valiant King
6/1 Al Riffa
6/1 Half Yours
7/1 Presage Nocturne
8/1 Buckaroo
14/1 Absurde
14/1 Meydaan
14/1 Onesmoothoperator
14/1 River Of Stars
22/1 Vauban
22/1 Flatten The Curve
22/1 Further
25/1 bar
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