A resounding last-start win has put Athabascan on a Melbourne Cup path with trainer John O’Shea seeing no reason why the French import can’t go on with the job.
The five-year-old has been in Australia for less than a year and after a seasoning campaign in the autumn, which included a Canberra Cup placing behind subsequent Group 1 winner Arapaho, the horse appears to have hit his stride.
Two solid efforts over shorter journeys laid the platform for his City Tattersall’s Club Cup (2400m) victory and O’Shea expects him to prove it was no fluke when he steps out over the same distance in the Colin Stephen Quality at Rosehill.
“He has trained on lovely and there’s no reason he wouldn’t run well on Saturday,” O’Shea said.
While Athabascan holds a nomination for the Metropolitan (2400m) seven days later, he is unlikely to back-up in the staying feature.
O’Shea is instead keen to head south to tackle some of the Cup lead-up races in a bid to secure a start on the first Tuesday in November.
“He’s going to Flemington to The Bart Cummings,” O’Shea said.
“I think he is a genuine two-miler, so we’ll give him a chance (to get to the Melbourne).”
This post is an excerpt from JustHorseRacing and can be read in full here.