Australian Bloodstock's Luke Murrell knows better than most how hard it is to get a runner in the Melbourne Cup, let alone win it.
So when the Hunter-based syndication company he started with Jamie Lovett secured three runners in Tuesday's edition for the first time, he said it was simply "amazing".
Australian Bloodstock, which rose to prominence with Protectionist's brilliant win in 2014, will try to go back-to-back with Gold Trip in the $8.4 million race at Flemington, while French mare Lastotchka and Ashrun will also carry the company's colours.
And while Gold Trip will be their best hope of a third win, the return of Ashrun was perhaps the most satisfying for Murrell.
Ashrun was 10th from the outside barrier in the 2020 edition when trained by Germany's Andreas Wohler, but was then sidelined for almost three years with tendon injuries.
Now eight and a stablemate of Gold Trip with Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, the gelding returned less than two months ago. At his third start back, he ran second in the Geelong Cup to earn a spot in Tuesday's race.
"It's just a bonus when you have a horse like Ashrun, who you just have to write off with the amount of injuries and issues they have, and then all of a sudden to get them into a Cup," Murrell said. "I can't tell you how happy we were just with his first-up run, just to say 'well, he's back'. He ran seventh and we were thrilled with that.
"We stuck with him just because he was a weight-for-age horse and his Melbourne Cup run when he got beat, it was one of the best Cup runs ever. He ran home in 33 and bit, and he was so good.
"The original owners dropped out of him and we've been carrying the can for three years nearly, thinking we're washing the money away, so it's amazing to think he's going to line up in it. He probably can't win, but the owners are just over the moon."
Ashrun was a $41 TAB chance from gate 11 and with only 51.5 kilograms.
"That's his hope, that he's got no weight," he said. "We know he'll run the trip and if he gets a kind run and a clear passage, he could run top five or six."
Lastotchka, trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent jnr, was $21 from gate 21.
"She's a trier," Murrell said. "She's knee-high to a grasshopper and if I had the choice of that barrier or one or two, I would have chosen that one, because you wouldn't want her getting into the scrum and getting smashed.
"If it had been wet, we would have been really confident of a top-four finish, but she's not bad on the dry either. She's just one of those that loves the wet as well."
Gold Trip was a dominant winner last year on a rain-affected track carrying 57.5kg. This year he has built towards a Cup defence with a slashing Turnbull Stakes win, third in the Caulfield Cup and fifth in the Cox Plate. He has gate two and 58.5kg this time around and Murrell expected him to challenge again.
"He's probably going a lot better than last year," he said. "The only little negative is that he doesn't have as many miles in his legs this year, but geez, he's going well.
"He always gets back normally, but from gate two, it probably saves him four or five lengths, so that will maybe be a massive help in the finish, especially given it's a near 50-year weight record that he's got to break, but I genuinely think he could do it.
"I thought the weight would stop him last year, and on that effort, you'd have to say the weight is nothing. But I like to have my horses with the 10,000 metres in their legs, the Bart Cummings theory, and he just doesn't quite have that. But he just might be better than them, too."
As for Gold Trip's main rivals, Murrell was far from convinced about the credentials of raging $4.60 favourite Vauban.
"It can win but I think it's missing a one, if not a two, in front of his price," he said. "His run at Ascot, he won by five but beat horses that wouldn't win at Quirindi. His other impressive one was on a wet track, and he's not going to get that."
Australian Bloodstock had its first Cup runner, Illustrious Blue, in 2010, and have twice had two in the race.
"I honestly think a roughie will win this year and it won't surprise me if two or three roughies finish in the top four," he said. "They are so even this year."
