Kew Gardens© Photo Healy Racing
The Aidan O'Brien trained Kew Gardens has been assigned top weight of 58kg for the Lexus Melbourne Cup.
Should he travel to Melbourne for the 2019 Victorian Spring Racing Carnival, Kew Gardens - a winner of two Group 1 races including last year's English St Leger - will set the benchmark for the 159th Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, 5 November at Flemington.
Cross Counter, who surged to victory in last year's AU$8 million Melbourne Cup for his trainer Charlie Appleby, will carry 57.5kg this year as he bids to become the first horse since Makybe Diva in 2005 to retain his crown.
The 6.5kg increase from last year's weight of 51kg is the joint second highest progression in the weight allocated to a Melbourne Cup winner since 1970, with only Gala Supreme - in 1974 - receiving a larger increase of 8.5kg.
"Kew Gardens was the world's joint highest-rated stayer alongside Stradivarius last year, he was a dominant winner of the 2018 St Leger at Doncaster and so is a worthy topweight among the 152 entries for this year's Melbourne Cup," said Greg Carpenter, Racing Victoria's Executive General Manager.
"Cross Counter will carry 6.5kg more than when he won the Melbourne Cup, which is the same increase as Let's Elope in 1992; but given the nature of his victory last year and the natural progression in the weight-for-age benchmark from a three-year-old to a four-year-old, I felt it was an appropriate penalty to impose."
"Inevitably the internationals will again pose a formidable challenge to the locally-trained stayers, with the first three home in the 2018 Melbourne Cup all set to return to Melbourne this year; but if the likes of Andrew Ramsden winner Steel Prince and Adelaide Cup winner Surprise Baby can maintain their form throughout the spring, I'm sure the visiting horses will have a real fight on their hands."
Weights for other Irish trained entries include Mater Of Reality (55.5kg), Latrobe (55kg), Twilight Payment (55kg) and Il Paradiso (52.5kg).
Former Irish trained contenders are Homesman (56kg), Johannes Vermeer (55kg), Mustajeer (55.5kg), Constantinople (52.5kg), and Yucatan (54.5kg)
