Hugely important weekend of overseas racing. Plenty of candidates are running across Europe and will determine whether they subsequently make the trip to Australia. Greg Carpenter will also be watching closely to ping them with penalties (in the interview linked above he particularly mentioned Il Paradiso as being difficult to handicap due to a lack of races).

The live nominations are causing a few problems with quarantine. It was reported today that Latrobe may be left out in the cold. Last year Lloyd Williams threatened not to bring him unless there was also space for his travel companion Master of Reality. This year he is one of the lower rated horses aiming for the second flight. Ratings of many of the horses may change due to this weekend's results though, just to throw more uncertainty into the mix.

Werribee's quarantine facility has space for 32 horses in the first shipment and just 8 in the second. Those on the first shipment (arriving September 28th and able to race from October 12th) have just gone into quarantine in the UK for 2 weeks. As can be seen in the races below, there are far more nominated horses vying in races this weekend than can fit in those 8 remaining spaces.

The second shipment go into quarantine in the UK on September 26th, arriving October 12th and able to race from October 26th (Cox Plate Day).

Victorian Racing Officials are hanging on Aidan O'Brien determining which of the runners he's nominated he actually brings. There's even a possibility of a third flight being chartered to Sydney with horses being quarantined at Canterbury racecourse, able to race just 3 days before the Cup.


Friday

3600m Magners Rose Doncaster Cup Stakes
(Group 2) (British Champions Series) (3yo+) @ Doncaster
Barsanti @ $26 is up against Stradivarius, Dee Ex Bee and Max Dynamite. Interesting that Dee Ex Bee couldn't nominate for the Melbourne Cup after bleeding in his last run but he's allowed to race again in the UK straight away...


Saturday

2920m William Hill St Leger Stakes
(Group 1) (British Champions Series) (3yo) @ Doncaster
Il Paradiso @ $7 is third favourite behind Logician and Sir Dragonet. Also in the field are fellow Cup nominees Technician @ $15, Dashing Willoughby @ $17, and Western Australia @ $51.

2400m Paddy Power Betting Shop Stakes
(Group 3) (3yo+) @ Leopardstown
Stivers, Buckhurst, Mount Everest, and Norway are all in the running

2000m QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes
(Group 1) (3yo+) @ Leopardstown
Hunting Horn and Magic Wand are nominated in this non-qualifying race

2600m Irish Stallion Farms EBF "Petingo" Handicap
(Premier Handicap) (3yo+) @ Leopardstown
Eminence is in this non-qualifying race


Sunday

2400m 135th Deutsches St Leger
(Group 3) (3yo+) (Turf) @ Dortmund
Ispolini is the only Cup contender who nominated for this race but is also in the field for the Irish St. Leger. You'd think he'd go there...

2400m Comer Group International Irish St. Leger
(Group 1) (3yo+) @ Curragh
Kew Gardens @ $3.25, Cross Counter @ $4.30, Southern France @ $6.50, Master of Reality @ $9, Latrobe $9, Ispolini @ $13, Twilight Payment @ $13, Western Australia @ $51


There very well may be even more runners in action. I just looked for qualifying races (2400m and above at Group level) and when a couple were scratched I checked what they were up to.