Browne McMonagle has ridden Al Riffa in 11 of his 15 career starts, including last month\u2019s victory in the Irish St Leger, a third Group One victory for the partnership.<\/p>\n
However, that Leger success was the first time Al Riffa carried the colours of Australian Bloodstock and the ownership has opted for local knowledge of Flemington over familiarity with the horse. <\/p>\n
Zahra (43) won the Melbourne Cup back-to-back with Without A Fight (2023) and Gold Trip in 2022. The latter was owned by Australian Bloodstock, who also scored in the world-famous race through the Ryan Moore-ridden Protectionist in 2014.<\/p>\n
Docklands supplied Zahra with a Royal Ascot victory during the summer in the Queen Anne Stakes. Al Riffa is a general 5\/1 favourite to deliver O\u2019Brien a third Melbourne Cup following Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020).<\/p>\n
Australian Bloodstock\u2019s Jamie Lovett told the Australian publication Betsy: \u201cIn my view and a few others, Zahra is probably the best two-mile rider, the best staying rider we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously a lot of the connections have got a good relationship with him, so it just made sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, I feel sorry for the kid [Browne McMonagle]. I mean, he\u2019s ridden him very well. He\u2019s always been on the horse in Ireland, so it wasn\u2019t easy to make the decision, but I think history shows that the local guys tend to have a better strike rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not many Ryan Moores of the world that you can drop them anywhere and they ride up to a very high standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Irish and other European jockeys have had a mixed reception when riding in Australia over the decades since Vintage Crop and Mick Kinane enjoyed a pioneering victory in 1993. Kinane came in for withering criticism in subsequent Melbourne Cup spins on Vintage Crop. <\/p>\n
Frankie Dettori has never won the race in 17 attempts, finishing runner-up three times, including on the Willie Mullins-trained Max Dynamite 10 years ago. The Italian was frequently at the centre of media flak. In contrast, Moore\u2019s reputation Down Under is massive, with him having won not only the Cup but also the Cox Plate and the Golden Slipper over the years. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing, in my view, is knowing the horses to follow and the jockeys to follow. If you don\u2019t know the form and the local riders, it\u2019s a long two miles around Flemington and if you get it wrong, it can cost you a Melbourne Cup,\u201d Lovett commented. \u201cIt\u2019s just important to have the guys that know the track inside out and it\u2019s a very unique race, the Melbourne Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jamie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7YBDI2EDJETB2CW63XLOJM6Z5A.jpg\")
Jamie Melham riding Half Yours and Ben Allen on Absurde at the Sportsbet Caulfield Cup in Melbourne last week. Photograph: Vince Caligiuri\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
Irish representation in this year\u2019s Melbourne Cup is also likely to include Willie Mullins\u2019s Absurde, who is set to run in the race for a third time. Seventh and fifth in the last two years, he ran a rather unlucky seventh in last weekend\u2019s Caulfield Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cMassive run. A little bit disappointed. We just copped interference right as he was picking up. If we hadn\u2019t have copped that, he would have been right there in the finish,\u201d reported his rider Ben Allen.<\/p>\n
In other news, Aidan O\u2019Brien is mob-handed for Saturday\u2019s Doncaster, with nine of the 13 entries left in on Monday coming from Ballydoyle. O\u2019Brien is chasing a 12th win in the final Group One of the British season and Benvenuto Cellini is a heavy favourite to manage it.<\/p>\n
Up against him may be Andrew Balding\u2019s Item as well as Oxagon from the Gosden team, who was out of the frame on his last start in the Dewhurst. O\u2019Brien\u2019s Zetland Stakes winner Pierre Bonnard is also in the mix but may be among those kept in reserve for other top-flight options at Saint-Cloud on Sunday. <\/p>\n
Before that, Tuesday\u2019s Group Three highlight at the Curragh is the one-mile Staffordstown Stud Stakes for juvenile fillies, a contest that for the last two years identified future top-flight stars in Whirl and Content. <\/p>\n
The Ballydoyle team has a trio of hopefuls this time with Wayne Lordan on board the apparent number one hope Sugar Island. <\/p>\n
These will be the most testing conditions she has faced, however, and there could be some betting value in siding with her stable companion Ice Dancer. She coped with heavy going to win her maiden at Gowran when making virtually all the running. <\/p>\n
Noel Meade\u2019s Layfayette will relish the conditions and a patient spin from Finny Maguire may see the classy veteran emerge on top in the Amateur Derby contest. Go Just Do It drops in trip for the opener but his proven stamina over farther can only be an asset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Little has gone wrong for top rider Dylan Browne McMonagle this season, but Ireland\u2019s champion jockey-elect has suffered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[100178,288,163862,1071,38664,79,16,15,2805],"class_list":{"0":"post-515013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-aidan-o-brien","9":"tag-horse-racing","10":"tag-joseph-o-brien","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-ryan-moore","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-willie-mullins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115407862553457410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}