By Emma Berry
MELBOURNE, Australia—The possibility of seeing G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare (Aus) (Declaration Of War) racing in Europe has not been ruled out by his trainer Danny O'Brien, but it will not be in 2020.
Speaking at a press conference from his Flemington stable on the morning after his biggest win, O'Brien said, “He'll be a better horse next spring and he'll need to be because he'll have to carry more weight. Ultimately there's a 3,200-metre race that's on just across the road from where he lives and it's an A$8 million race, so the most likely thing for us is to try to see if he can win it again.”
In the immediate aftermath of Tuesday's victory, the horse's part-owner Geoff Corrigan indicated that he would love to send Vow And Declare to contest the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, where O'Brien has previously been represented by Star Witness (Aus) (Starcraft {NZ}), who was runner-up in the G1 King's Stand S. and third in the G1 Golden Jubilee S. in 2011. A dearth of staying races in Australia may force his hand to return.
The trainer continued, “The thing with [Vow And Declare] is, we would love to run him in 3,200-metre races and beyond. The only races for him here are potentially the Sydney Cup and obviously next year's Melbourne Cup. He'll definitely be in Australia for the next 12 months, but if he continues to improve, and he has to because he won yesterday by a neck carrying 52 kilos, so if we think we're going to go and beat Joseph and Aidan O'Brien over there, we will need to find a few more lengths. But if he can get better in the next 12 months, we will attempt to win the Melbourne Cup with more weight and he will need to do that before we think about travelling.”
Vow And Declare's victory at Flemington over the British-trained Prince Of Arran (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) and Irish challengers Il Paradiso (Galileo {Ire}) and Master Of Reality (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) dominated the front pages of the daily newspapers. Headlines of 'Local Legends' and 'Australia Day' in The Age and Herald Sun attest to the relief felt domestically that the country's iconic Cup is staying at home.
“It's a much more difficult race to win as an Australian than it was 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 25 years ago,” O'Brien agreed. “We certainly had a lot of people behind us in the build-up to the race, and post the race people in Australia are pretty happy, not just for the horse, but [for the fact that] the horse is owned by a group of Australians all up and down the eastern seaboard. Geoff Corrigan is an ex-Labour politician from New South Wales, [breeder and part-owner] Paul Lanskey is a property developer from Noosa. This wasn't a horse that they had to go and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on. He was syndicated for $50,000 and now we have real Australians with the unique experience that they've owned a Melbourne Cup winner.”
Vow And Declare faced the press for a photo call with the O'Brien family on Wednesday morning before heading away from Flemington for a couple of weeks in the paddock and at the beach. O'Brien said, “He's just a very happy horse. He's very relaxed and he has a great nature. He's had a light spring—he's only raced three times, it's not like he's had a gruelling preparation.”
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