Master O’Reilly Aimed for Fourth Try at the Melbourne Cup

Master O’Reilly will be eight-years-old by the time of the 2010 Melbourne Cup and connections are planning to run him in the race for the fourth time. His debut appearance in the Melbourne Cup was in 2007 after he won the 2007 Caulfield Cup. He finished eighth behind New Zealand horse Efficient who was a pretty special horse because he was the first Victoria Derby winner since the legendary Phar Lap to win the Melbourne Cup the following year.

In 2008 and 2009 Master O’Reilly came a creditable fourth in both Melbourne Cups behind Viewed and then Shocking, even though he had not had a single win since the 2007 Caulfield Cup. His last 25 race starts have all been at Group and Listed level and he has amassed almost $3 million in prizemoney.

Master O’Reilly is trained by Danny O’Brien and has already begun pre-training for his spring campaign. It will be a long and steady campaign with only a limited number of races compared to previous years. His pre-training has started on a water walker to build his fitness level before he starts with any trackwork. That has been happening at Matthew Feiss property at Woodstock and he will shortly be moved to either Barwon Heads or Flemington

Last year he did a lot of conditioning on a high-speed treadmill and will be trained in a similar way for the 2010 spring races. The goal for this veteran stayer is to get his fourth Melbourne Cup start and even though he doesn’t win many races he is a solid and consistent performer who is never far away. Based on his last two performances in the Melbourne Cup he should be able to make the field and boost his earnings stakes a little higher.

Jo Jackson

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