It may be a couple of months away but the excitement and fervour is beginning to mount for “the race that stops a nation”, the Melbourne Gold Cup in Australia.

Ante-post favourite Withhold was among the 183 declared entries this week, 53 of which were from overseas stables.

Great Britain and Ireland look to be extremely well represented this year with Cup regulars, Aidan O’Brien, Joseph O’Brien and Willie Mullins all declaring runners for the Australian showpiece.

Preparations are well under way for trainers and owners with Gold Cup ambitions, especially those international raiders who have to organise transportation and quarantine for their equine stars.

Let’s take a look through some of the runners that may well line up at Flemington Park on Tuesday 6th November.

Duretto (50/1)

Duretto started the 4/5 favourite for the Chester Stakes at the weekend and scrambled home to score by a neck under David Probert.

Anna-Lisa Balding, wife of trainer Andrew, told reporters the Melbourne Cup is next for the six-year-old.

Duretto just gets up to land the Foxy Bingo Fast And Fabulous Chester Stakes at @ChesterRaces

Watch the action LIVE on @ITV4 pic.twitter.com/H3xI1RYYxV

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) September 1, 2018

“He’s been a real star, now he’s heading to Australia for the Melbourne Cup," Balding said.  "Everyone in the yard loves him and David (Probert) said he’s still a fresh racehorse.”

Fellow Melbourne Cup entry Here And Now (50/1) dwelt at the start and stayed on one pace to be beaten 1-3/4 lengths into fourth.

 

Best Solution (33/1)

The Melbourne and Caulfield Cups are in the sights of Godolphin trainer Saeed Bin Suroor after his colt Best Solution won the G1 Grosser Preis Von Baden in Germany on Sunday.

He is set to go into quarantine on Thursday, September 13, for his trip to Australia. 

“I am always trying to find the right races for my horses. You are always looking to place them in races that will bring them on for the future, and these German races have served that purpose, as well as providing very good prize money” said bin Suroor.

 

Magic Circle (16/1)

Magic Circle has won each of his two starts this season, going on from his Chester Cup success to win the Group Three Henry II Stakes last time.

Ian Williams has been training the six-year-old for Melbourne since then and connections are very excited about his prospects.

His flamboyant owner Marwan Koukash is so excited that he has vowed that if his horse wins at Flemington on November 6th he intends to receive the trophy in nothing but a tie and a thong.

Last year's winning rider Corey Brown has been booked for the ride on Magic Circle, and Koukash believes having a local jockey will give their team that extra edge.

He said: "Ryan Moore rode Mount Athos the first time he ran in the race and I think if he'd have had more experience at the track he would have won.

"Corey's agent contacted me over two months before the race. They know the form very well and I've never known a top jockey like him pursue a ride so early before."

Corey Brown won his first Melbourne Cup on the Mark Kavanagh-trained Shocking in 2009.

“To ride in the race is a big feather in your cap as a jockey, but to win two of them is pretty special” said Brown.

 

Withhold (12/1)

Roger Charlton does not believe Withhold needs to run again before the Melbourne Cup in November.

The lightly-raced five-year-old has already won two major staying handicaps in the UK in the shape of the Cesarewitch and the Northumberland Plate.

"We don't need to really make a plan, but it is a possibility he will go straight to Australia," said Charlton.

"Unlike a lot of those horses he is going to be trained for the race as opposed to it being an afterthought.

"I think he is a suitable horse for the race on a suitable weight which is down the bottom."

"He probably doesn't need to run again and hopefully we will go straight there, but we can be flexible.

"A trainer's job is to produce a horse fit and well on the day, whether he goes to a racecourse or does it on the gallops we will see, as we are talking about November."

Withhold is bidding to become the first British-trained winner of the race.

 

Torcedor (16/1)

Formerly trained in Ireland by Jessica Harrington, Torcedor ran third to Stradivarius in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June and came second to the same horse in the Goodwood Cup last month.

Australian Bloodstock has transferred the dual Group 3 winner to German trainer Andreas Wohler, who prepared Protectionist to win the Cup in 2014.

Torcedor, a six-year-old gelding by Fastnet Rock, has won six of his 19 starts.

"No doubt one of the top three two-mile horses in the world right now." @Austbloodstock aim up at #MelbourneCup with Torcedor. https://t.co/azL5fgB7Tr pic.twitter.com/wFacHwb80A

— Racing.com (@Racing) August 20, 2018

Australian Bloodstock’s Luke Murrell said: "We believe he's one of the best-credentialed horses available for this year's Melbourne Cup, so we're thrilled to have got him."

"We wanted to buy a horse which could win the Melbourne Cup, not just run in it, and it's been a struggle.

"To be brutally honest, there were only a handful of horses you could get to win a Melbourne Cup and now we've got one of them."

Australian Bloodstock also has Cup hopes for Big Duke (50/1), Red ­Cardinal (50/1) and Ormito (100/1).

 

Marmelo (20/1)

There were doubts cast whether Marmelo would still go to the Melbourne Cup following his defeat as the odd-on favourite in the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay at Deauville but part-owner John O'Neil confirmed the trip was still on.

Marmelo finished ninth in the two-mile Group One last year for Hughie Morrison and the trainer is hoping to improve upon that.

Morrsion said: “He is good. I think last time proved if you keep going to the well on fast ground, it can catch up with them. Last year we trained him to win the Kergorlay, this year we are training him to do his best in Melbourne.

“He is a good horse; I just wish the Prix Royal-Oak was in the summer. He is not a fast-ground horse, he can act on it but you can’t keep running on it.”

888sport early prediction: Best Solution (e/w)

 

*Odds subject to change - correct at time of writing*

Steven is a sports and horse racing enthusiast and is a member of the Horseracing Writers and Photographers Association (HWPA) in the United Kingdom.

He is a regular visitor to Paris Longchamp for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and a lifelong fan of the Aintree Grand National, a subject he writes about 52 weeks of the year. Last year he reached the impressive milestone of attending the last 30 renewals of the Grand National.