More horses than ever are clamouring to get a start in Australia’s two great staying handicaps, the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups, but not surprisingly the number of connections willing to pay up for their galloper to take on Winx in the Cox Plate has decreased from a year ago.
The Melbourne Cup, which carries record prizemoney next month, has had 85 horses accept at the first declaration stage this year, an increase from 55 and 52 respectively over the past two years.
Of those, 22 – enough to almost make up the field of 24 – are internationals, compared to 14 this time last year.
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