For Godolphin’s Australian head trainer James Cummings, the British-bred Hartnell will be the first Melbourne Cup runner in his own name. 

Here, he explains the horse’s preparation and why he believes he can make it “third time lucky”: 

“This is Hartnell’s third year in the Melbourne Cup and he’s got here off a different preparation than in the past.

“I realised when going through his card, that his fresh performances at his last three campaigns have been top class. Getting off the plane from the UK he ran second in the G1 Chipping Norton Stakes at a mile and it’s no surprise when I look back through his record that his only win over two miles came when he was fresh.

“So we’re taking the same approach. It will be three weeks and three days after his last run in the Caulfield Stakes by the time he gets to the Melbourne Cup. It’s a similar pattern to the recent Cup winners Efficient and Green Moon who were only fair in the Cox plate but were able to turn it around in the Melbourne Cup.

“Hartnell has shown us that he’s ready to go again, and where better to do that than in Australia’s greatest race.

“I hope it’s going to give His Highness Sheikh Mohammed and the whole stable a great thrill to have a horse that has the potential, if he’s bang-on on the day, to feature in such a high-calibre race.

“Over the final few days it will be a matter of maintaining his fitness levels, there’s no more gruelling test for the whole season than the Cup so he needs to be absolutely at his peak.

“Hartnell will also be my first Melbourne Cup runner in my own name. I really enjoyed the day when I saddled up Precedence with my grandfather when he sailed home from well back to finish sixth.

“The emotions you can go through on Melbourne Cup day can be quite hard to describe …. there is no other race like the Melbourne Cup for widespread appeal, the way the race transcends the sport and the real feeling of the grand final of the whole season.

“To have a horse of Hartnell’s calibre, and for me to be saddling him up as topweight is really special. But for the time being I don’t give myself too much time to think about it.

“As the horse’s trainer I’m just focussing on the processes, making sure the whole stable is in the right frame of mind and keeping the horse happy and relaxed and enjoying himself as he goes toward his biggest test for the season.

“Hopefully he can find something inside him that can help him to really reward us.”