Estimate To Confirm Melbourne Cup Start
- Thursday, 11 September 2014 07:27
Estimate can confirm a trip to Australia for the Melbourne Cup with a strong showing in the Doncaster Cup.
Raced by the Queen, Estimate narrowly failed to defend the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in June before a failure at Goodwood.
The Sir Michael Stoute-trained mare bounced back to push fellow Melbourne Cup entrant Pale Mimosa all the way in York's Lonsdale Cup.
The Ed Dunlop-trained Times Up has won the Group Two race for the past two years and lines up again on Friday following his third in the Lonsdale Cup.
"Times Up is in fantastic order. He had his final blow-out on Tuesday morning and we are very pleased with him but we are under no illusions about the size of the task in front of him," Dunlop said.
Richard Fahey runs Northumberland Plate winner, Angel Gabrial who is also a Melbourne Cup nomination, while High Jinx has been declared by James Fanshawe having been off the track since winning a Listed race at Maisons-Laffitte in July.
Other contenders include the Andrew Balding-trained Whiplash Willie, Peter Niven's stable star Clever Cookie and Sabrina Harty's Irish raider Kalann.
