Melbourne Cup favourite Mount Athos, left, trained by Luca Cumani and ridden by Chris Cogan, warms up at Werribee last week. 88182 Picture: RACING VICTORIA
By XAVIER SMERDON
IT IS a full house in Werribee with the arrival of international horses hoping win big this Spring Carnival.
The TAB International Horse Centre at Werribee is currently hosting the first shipment of world class horses with 16 of the champions now in residence.
A spokesperson from Racing Victoria said the “house full” sign had been raised at the Newminster Stables, the bigger of the two barns at the complex.
“The last two Emirates Melbourne Cup winners, Americain and Dunaden, were prepared from Werribee and they are in residence again this year alongside horses originating from France, UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Brazil,” the spokesperson said.
“For Americain, it is his third visit to Melbourne and he seems very much at home in surroundings that are now as familiar to him as the Chantilly stables of his trainer Alain de Royer Dupre.”
Werribee has become a focal point of the Spring Carnival since the quarantine centre was built, making it the only privately owned and operated quarantine station in Australia.
