How Did One Scan and One Kilogram Remake the Melbourne Cup Field?

Stuart Ramsey didn’t know his horse had made the Melbourne Cup when Racing.com rang him on Thursday afternoon. When he was told the news he became emotional, and the words he found were the plainest a breeder-owner could offer: “I can’t believe it. You breed and race horses all your life, hoping to get a runner in the Melbourne Cup. It’s a dream come true.”

Racing Victoria’s handicapper gave So You Are a kilogram for winning Wednesday’s Bendigo Cup, the third time the gelding had been rehandicapped since weights came out, and stewards ordered Saint George out on the same day after scans at Werribee. The kilogram moved So You Are from 28th to 24th in the order of entry. The withdrawal did the last step of that move: without Saint George coming out, he would have sat 25th, one place outside a 24-horse field.

At the University of Melbourne Equine Centre at Werribee, Saint George had a compulsory CT scan of his lower legs. The pictures went to an independent panel of imaging specialists from Australia, Britain and the United States, three of the seven nominated to look at each horse on their own. The same three had looked at his scan before the 2024 Melbourne Cup and found no heightened risk then, when he ran 22nd. This time they found the opposite, and the follow-up PET scan on Wednesday did not change their view. Stewards stood him down for the rest of the spring, and his managing owner, Ozzie Kheir, told Racing.com: “It’s disappointing, but it is what it is.”

Saint George had already spent the spring under the vets’ eyes. He needed a race-morning examination after being replated before he could start in the Caulfield Cup, where he ran second, beaten half a length by Kingswood. He was examined again, shoes on, before the Cox Plate, where he ran fifth, beaten 2.95 lengths. He had even passed Thursday’s trot-up, about an hour before connections learned what the scans showed. He had been sitting 19th in the order at the third acceptances on October 26, carrying 55 kilograms and on the second line of betting at $10.

The scan that stopped him dates to a death six years ago. Anthony Van Dyck suffered a fatal injury in the 2020 Melbourne Cup. The review that followed adopted 41 of its 44 recommendations, including a compulsory CT scan for every horse in the Cup field, with the pictures read by independent specialists rather than the horse’s own camp. Saint George’s case ran that course in full, from the compulsory scan to the PET scan offered to his stable when the first pictures raised the alarm. The panel’s view after the second set of pictures was the same as after the first.

So You Are’s own road into the field ran through three wins, each one adding weight rather than taking it away. The Colin Stephen Quality on September 26 cost him half a kilogram, and the ATC St Leger on October 17 cost him another half. Wednesday’s Bendigo Cup, run over 2400 metres with 58.5 kilograms on his back and Berkeley Square behind him, cost him a full kilogram. That was the biggest Bendigo Cup penalty since Tanby’s in 2011, and more than the half-kilogram given to the past two winners of that race. Racing Victoria’s head of handicapping, David Hegan, called the Bendigo win the best of the gelding’s recent victories on weights and opposition. He put the reassessment at 54 kilograms for Tuesday’s 3200-metre race, a figure benchmarked against his rivals internationally.

Ramsey’s own history with the race runs through So You Are’s granddam, Sky Trist, who won the Queen’s Cup over two miles at Flemington in March 2000. She was being aimed at that year’s Melbourne Cup when her campaign ended and she was retired. Ramsey still holds that she should have run, telling Racing.com she won the 3200-metre Queen’s Cup when Queen Elizabeth visited Australia. The five-year-old homebred he bred himself, to be ridden by Rachel King, is the runner the family finally has in the race.

The field Thursday produced is still not final, because five horses left the first inspections without a pass and one leading overseas runner has not been inspected at all. Defiantly, equal first in the order when he was inspected, was missing a right hind shoe and showed a change in gait. He will be looked at again on Saturday after being reshod, alongside Enfjaar and Wine Dark Sea, who showed gait changes of their own. Vauban and Litzdeel face their second examinations on Friday, and the Japanese stayer Stinger Glass faces his first. Thirty-six horses were examined on Thursday and 29 were passed. The field holds 24. Any horse not passed by the final acceptance deadline cannot take its place, which leaves the last places in the 24 open to the re-checks rather than to form.

Maher still has seven runners in the picture after losing Saint George. They are Point Of Law, Middle Earth, Zahrann, Shockletz, Royal Supremacy, Mr Monaco and Juja Kibo. AAP notes the tally would be a record for one trainer, ahead of Robert Hickmott’s six for Lloyd Williams in 2013, when Gai Waterhouse’s Fiorente won. Waterhouse is down to Vauban after The Euphrates was withdrawn. The gelding ran 14th as favourite in 2023, 11th in 2024 and sixth in 2025, and he goes to his Friday re-check as her remaining Cup runner. She described him to AAP in her own words: “I love this gelding, I really do, and he’s got a real fan club.”

Behind the 24, the queue has a defending champion in it, because Jamie Melham, who won last year’s Cup on Half Yours and became only the second woman to win the race, is booked to ride Future History. The Gregory Hickman stayer sits 26th in the order, first in line if a horse inside the field fails a re-check or comes out. Half Yours isn’t in this year’s race, so Melham’s defence depends on somebody else’s bad news. The horses balloted out who have passed their veterinary examinations keep one consolation in view, eligibility for the Victoria Racing Club’s $200,000 Queen Elizabeth Stakes bonus.

The Euphrates and Kings Valley did not present for examination and were withdrawn. Jennivamoose passed her inspection and was withdrawn by her connections.