It is looking very much as though the gentlemanly Luca Cumani is taking the gloves off in his quest to land a first Melbourne Cup at Flemington in early November having declared his intention to field a possible four runners in the ‘race that stops a nation’, writes Elliot Slater.

Cumani and his horses are never far away from the horse racing betting news and he has come agonisingly close in recent seasons to winning Australia’s greatest horse race, his Purple Moon in 2007 and then Bauer 12 months later both failing by the narrowest of margins. Undeterred, the softly-spoken Italian born master trainer has declared Drunken Sailor, Sahara Sun, the 2008 runner-up Bauer, and last year’s seventh place finisher Manighar, and it is far from impossible that all four will indeed take their chance.

Despite a fairly disappointing effort at Goodwood recently when beaten a long way into third by Motrice in the listed Windflower March Stakes over a mile-and-six-furlongs – despite being named in many expert’s horse racing tips - Drunken Sailor appears the most likely winner for Cumani at this stage having clearly been prepared to peak for the Melbourne two-mile contest and not before. His previous efforts this term when winning the Group 3 Coutts Glorious Stakes at Goodwood and finishing a very creditable third behind Await The Dawn in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, give the six-year-old every chance on the form book of making his presence felt at Flemington.

Bauer has been plagued by injury ever since his nose loss to Viewed in the big race in 2008, Chilean star Sahara Sun, (a winner in Group 2 company in his native land in February of this year but not seen since) is a fascinating contender, whilst Manighar, seventh to Americain in the Melbourne Cup 12 months ago and a creditable fourth to Fame And Glory in the Ascot Gold Cup in June, looks sure to give another good account of himself once again.

All in all, this looks to be Cumani’s strongest ever Aussie raiding party, and if he doesn’t win the race with this quartet this time around he may well give up on the idea altogether.