Weather key to Melbourne Cup winners return

The weather could be the deciding factor on whether Gold Trip makes his reappearance at Caulfield in preparation for the Australian Cup.

The Melbourne Cup winner features among entries for the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes (1800m) on Saturday, which, if he starts, may be his solitary outing ahead of the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 30.

Gold Trip, who won the 2022 Melbourne Cup, has not raced since pulling up lame after finishing 17th in last year’s Cup behind Without A Fight.

The entire has had two jump-outs at Cranbourne and a trip to Caulfield for a gallop to prepare for his return.

“It’s great to have him back,” trainer Ciaron Maher said.

“Hopefully it’s not too firm for him. He’s certainly in good order after his last trial and he’s got a good base underneath him.

“His last trial, we had some shades on him and that got his tail up and he was feeling pretty good.”

Weather around Caulfield is forecast to be 33 degrees on Wednesday and 36 degrees with a change on the way with the potential for 3mm of rain combined on Thursday and Friday and a further 1mm on race day.

Gold Trip ran second in the Peter Young Stakes last year when the race was run at Sandown, and Maher said that circuit was potentially a better fit for the stayer than Caulfield.

“He’s run well fresh at other times as well,” Maher said.

“But Caulfield is probably a little different than Sandown and Sandown is probably more to his liking, but he’s certainly in pretty good order.

“We’ll go straight to the Australian Cup after Saturday.

“He’s got a good affinity with Flemington and then probably up to Sydney for the Queen Elizabeth (Stakes at Randwick in April).”