Camelot could be Wizard of Oz The Moonee Valley Racing Club has this week issued invitations to the connections of 10 horses trained in Britain and Ireland for the Group 1 $3 million 2013 Sportingbet Cox Plate (2040m) on Saturday, October 26. They include Tattersalls Gold Cup one-two Al Kazeem and Camelot with an invitation also issued to Aidan O'Brien's Irish 2000 Guineas winner Magician. Godolphin pair Farrh and Sajjhaa could join them in Australia along with globetrotting duo Side Glance and Planteur with The Fugue, Trade Storm and Ed Dunlop's American import Unbridled Command completing the list. There is a good spread of possible runners from France headed by regular Antipodean visitor Dunaden who could cross swords with Giofra, Mandour and Maxios. The MVRC have also invited two of Hong Kong's leading performers in Military Attack who recently stormed home to win the Group One SIA Cup at Kranji from stablemate and fellow invitee Dan Excel. Akeed Mofeed and California Memory are the other Hong Kong stars to be invited with Mike de Kock's The Apache and Japan's Eishin Flash completing the list. MVRC Chairman Bob Scarborough is excited by the possibility of enticing the world's best weight-for-age thoroughbreds to Melbourne to contest the Sportingbet Cox Plate. "With the retirement of Frankel, there is now a new crop of Group One weight-for-age champions attempting to assert their authority on the racing world," he said. "The international racing landscape is forever changing and we are now seeing a large contingent of horses not only travelling overseas, but winning international Group races. "I am hopeful that the connections of the best weight-for-age horses in the world will accept our invitation to travel to Melbourne to contest the Weight-For-Age Championship in the southern hemisphere, the Sportingbet Cox Plate, and attempt to become the first international horse to claim the crown."
