Melbourne Cup runner-up Emissary has returned to the Flemington stables of trainer Mike Moroney to begin the preparation of going one better in Australia’s most iconic race.
Emissary has just completed three weeks of pre-training after being tipped out for a break following a three-run autumn campaign.
Moroney said he was disappointed with Emissary’s autumn campaign which concluded after the stayer finished 11th to Cascadian in the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington in March.
“We were about to push the button and go a bit further, but we decided we wouldn’t,” Moroney said.
“We just weren’t happy enough with him to keep going.
“He was looming into his races, but not quite letting down.
“The vets went over him, and he had a bit of bone soreness all over from too short of a break after the spring, so we backed off and decided to give him a nice long break.
“Our main aim has always been to bring him back for the Melbourne Cup.”
Moroney said Emissary had put on some nice condition during his break and would have a steady build-up to the spring.
He said Emissary was likely to follow a similar path to the Melbourne Cup at Flemington to the one he had last year, which commenced in the Listed Heatherlie Stakes (1700m), onto Group 3 Naturalism Stakes (2000m) and then to the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes (2400m), all at Caulfield.
Emissary then went on to win the Group 3 Geelong Cup to cement his place in the Melbourne Cup.
“We’ll go through what we did with him last year, but we’ll go through the Caulfield Cup rather than the Herbert Power and the Geelong Cup,” Moroney said.
“His first two runs were at Caulfield last year and I think we’ll do something similar again and then into the Caulfield Cup.”
Stablemate, French-bred import Alenquer, has started pre-training following a gelding operation after his sole Australian start when last in the All-Star Mile at Moonee Valley in March.
“He looks like a mile-and-a-half will be his best trip but he’s about three weeks from coming into the stable,” Moroney said.
“He handled the gelding operation well. Sometimes with these older horses it can be a bit of a query with them, but he seems well at this stage.”