Melbourne Cup return on Willie Mullins radar

Irish trainer Willie Mullins vows he will be back for another shot at the Melbourne Cup despite his two runners finishing out of the placings at Flemington on Tuesday.

Absurde ($9) was the best finisher of the pair, running seventh, 5-½ lengths from the winner Without A Fight while Vauban, who was the easing $5.50 online bookmaker sites favourite, finished 14th, more than 13 lengths from the winner.

“Of course, we’ll be back,” Mullins said.

“It’s a great prize, it’s a great day, it’s a great occasion, people love coming here and my owners are still having a good time.”

Both horses enjoyed a good run in the 3200m contest and Mullins considered Absurde was a strong chance of winning under Zac Purton early in the straight.

“Absurde ran a cracker,” Mullins said.

“About a third of the way up the straight, I thought we were a chance of winning, but that winning post is an awful long way up there and he actually didn’t see out the trip as well as we thought he would.

“But Zac was very happy, we were very happy that he ran his race.”

Vauban, who was ridden by Ryan Moore, trailed the speed that was set by Serpentine and appeared comfortable in the run, but Mullins noted the gelding was starting to struggle 1200m from the finish.

He said the warm conditions that eventually saw the Flemington track upgraded to a Good 3 after the Melbourne Cup, may have taken a toll.

“Vauban was gone too far out for my liking,” Mullins said.

“Ryan was having to niggle six furlongs out, and that is not him, so we will have to analyse that, but he did not fire on the day.”

Mullins said the pair would return to Ireland for a potential campaign over hurdles.

“They’re dual-purpose horses, but if either horse had won, they would not see another hurdle again,” Mullins said.

“Now that they didn’t win, they will have to pay a penalty.”