Melbourne Cup Odds: Uncertain Future For Ethiopia
October 8th, 2014 by Pom de TurfThe Bart Cummings Stakes at Flemington last weekend was supposed to be a return to action for stayer Ethiopia that helped him ease back into racing after a spell of decent length out in Western Australia. He was shaping up to be a contender in the Melbourne Cup Racing odds if everything went according to plan, and trainer Pat Carey was pretty upbeat about the injury troubles that have dogged Ethiopia: ‘he had two runs in the autumn and he pulled up sore and he went home to Perth where he spelled and just started a long, slow build-up there at home. He raced in Perth and Kalgoorlie and it wasn’t a great result for the horse, but it was an arduous trip out there and back. He went home and got on the first home to Melbourne. He looks very well, he has plenty of work under his belt and we just tidied him up with a nice trial at Cranbourne and he went quiet well and he recovered well after the trial. Obviously he has been sparingly raced over the last few years and he has had a few injuries that he has had to deal with and he isn’t an easy horse to train in that regard. He has pretty bad feet and we seem to be on top of those now, but it has impacted in other ways.’
Seems a shame to break the news, then, that things didn’t exactly go according to plan for Ethiopia. After a run that revealed he has a good way to go before he’s at anything like his best, and in which he trailed the rest of the field home, he’s seeing odds today of $301.00 for the Melbourne Cup. We’re not writing him off completely at this stage – Ethiopia still has the chance to find form before the Melbourne Cup comes around on November 4th. But instead of confirming Ethiopia as a Melbourne Cup hopeful, the Bart Cummings instead saw the star of Who Shot Thebarman rising, and after he cruised to victory in the Bart Cummings, the Kiwi stayer is in the Racing odds at $13.00 with Sportsbet as of today, alongside Lucia Valentina and sandwiched between the Japanese imports Bande and Admire Rakti…
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