Godolphin shift focus from English season to preparation for Melbourne Cup

Cavalryman and Ahzeemah expected to lead group's charge for first victory in 3,200-metre handicap

Cavalryman and Kieren Fallon, left, racing to victory in the Goodwood Cup ahead of Ahzeemah and Harry Bently, right, at Goodwood racecourse on July 31, 2014, in Chichester, England. Alan Crowhurst / GShow more

Goodwood, England // From the rolling downs in the south of England, attentions turn to the pancake-flat oval of Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.

All this week, the Sussex Downs has acted as a testing crucible for a campaign in Australia with the intention to run in the Melbourne Cup, staged on the first Tuesday in November.

Van Percy scored in the Summer Handicap on Tuesday, the first of five days of this meeting, and is an intended runner in Australia.

Cavalryman led home Godolphin stablemates Ahzeemah and Excellent Result, who was sixth, in the Goodwood Cup on Thursday, and Pether's Moon won the Glorious Stakes, in which Cafe Society finished third, on Friday.

All six are likely to head south next month to contest the world’s most lucrative handicap.

To get into the self-styled “race that stops a nation”, a horse needs to have at least finished third in an internationally recognised, all-ages, Group flat race over at least 2,300 metres, or achieved a fifth place in a Group 1 under the same conditions.

A win in a Listed race over the same distance, or a placed finish in the Ebor Handicap at York this month or the Cesarewitch at Newmarket in October, also acts as a qualification.

It is why Excellent Result needs to run at least once more if he is to accompany his two Godolphin colleagues on the plane.

Cavalryman and Ahzeemah are set to have another outing in three weeks in the Lonsdale Cup at York, where Van Percy could contest the Ebor Handicap.

Cavalryman is generally regarded as Silvestre de Sousa’s mount but was partnered by Kieren Fallon on Thursday as the Brazilian rider was suspended.

Whomever rides next time, Fallon is convinced the evergreen eight year old has all the attributes to hand Godolphin their first winner in the 3,200-metre handicap.

“Cavalryman goes on any ground, has the speed you need to get into any position, he’s got good early gate speed, he travels well and stays well. He can quicken, too,” the Irishman said.

Cavalryman finished 12th in the 2012 Melbourne Cup, and Fallon said he fears the horse’s long and distinguished career leaves him at the mercy of the Australian handicapper.

“It would depend what weight he got for him to go for the Melbourne Cup,” he said. “All our good horses that go over there get killed by the handicapper.”

To even make the Melbourne Cup line-up, Van Percy will have to improve significantly to climb to a handicap rating that justifies his entry.

He will have to climb about 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) to get in, but trainer Andrew Balding is confident that his four-year-old son of 2006 English Derby winner Sir Percy can continue to rise up the ladder.

“He is likely to get into the Ebor and that is an obvious target, and it is within the quarantine timings to go to Australia so that works out really well,” Balding said.

“He will be near the bottom of the weights in the Ebor, unbelievably, but that is handy.

“He probably needs to go up in the weights to get into the Melbourne Cup, but he was bought with that in mind and he will go down there and possibly run in something like the Geelong Cup – we’ll take it from there.”

Follow us on Twitter at @SprtNationalUAE