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DICK POWELL'S Sunday at Flemington Stalls were drawn on Saturday night for Tuesday's $5.4 million Melbourne Cup and the field of 24 was rocked by the defection of EFFICIENT because of injury. ZIPPING, who had to be scratched from the Mackinnon S. on Saturday when he was stuck under the starting gate is also out of the Cup, and KIRKLEES (Jade Robbery) was scratched after trainer Saeed bin Suroor watched him after arriving here and did not like what he saw. VIGOR was one of the betting choices going into this weekend, but as the 25th preferred horse on the list of runners, he was not able to get in when the owners of some of the longshots paid their fee and he was left out in the cold. VIEWED, the defending champion from Bart Cummings, drew post nine, and unlike last year when he only carried 117 pounds to victory at odds of 41-1, this year he has to tote high weight of 128 pounds and concede between six and 17 pounds going two miles. It will take all of Bart's mastery to accomplish this. The early betting favorite is ALCOPOP at odds of 5.5-1. He gets in light with only 116 pounds and his recent win in the Herbert Power S. at Caulfield was sensational. His rider, Dom Tourneur, has never ridden at Flemington before and while this would be a remarkable accomplishment and not worth going against, the long and glorious history of the Melbourne Cup is filled with even more improbable results. His trainer, Jake Stephens, is not a big name Down Under and uses some unorthodox methods with his small stable including having his horses with riders aboard more than anybody might thought possible. Being a handicap, the program numbers are in the order of weight carried so Viewed is number 1 and LEICA DING, the light weight of the field at 111 pounds, is number 24. When you bet the Cup in the United States, there is a separate pari-mutuel pool so you might be able to find some bargains. Australia has been in a severe drought for about eight years and the ground at Flemington is usually pretty firm. It might start out as being listed as "Dead-4" earlier in the day after being watered but with the sun and wind it dries out and should be "Good-3" by the time the Cup is run. Derby Day saw similar conditions and it didn't look like any running styles were at a disadvantag. After last year's fiasco when he sent three horses that finished at the end of the pack, Aidan O'Brien did not send anyone. He complained even on the morning of the Cup that the ground was too hard and when two of his runners finished lame he was not happy. This year, with no real change in the weather, O'Brien declined to come. Dermot Weld, who has won the Cup twice, also stayed home with last year's fifth-place finisher PROFOUND BEAUTY because of the possible firm ground. Luca Cumani, who finished second in the past two runnings of the Cup, only has longshot BASALTICO after CIMA DE TRIOMPHE ran poorly in the Caulfield Cup and Saturday's Mackinnon. Godolphin thought Kirklees was giving them and Frankie Dettori a real shot at winning after a wide trip in the Caulfield Cup and now only have CRIME SCENE to do battle. The horses that train in Sydney are always tough down here as are the New Zealand-breds so it looks like Bart against the rest on Tuesday. Not much on the calendar today. Fell asleep early last night during the Australia--New Zealand rugby match on TV (the All Blacks beat the Wallabies 32-19) and got up early Sunday morning. The Sunday papers are filled with talk about the Cup so it will be fun to read all about it and report back to you. The weather cooled off yesterday evening. The Derby Day crowd was listed at 107,000 which was down some from last year. Maybe the hot weather made it seem more crowded than I thought as many tried to crowd in to get some shade. Cup Day is supposed to be near 70 degrees and breezy with little rain in the forecast between now and then.
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