Hollie Doyle called up for Melbourne Cup after British challenger snatches late spot

Hollie Doyle has snared a mount in the £4.5million Melbourne Cup on a British-trained challenger.

Sea King, trained by Harry Eustace, had one shot at earning a start in ’s most famous race at Flemington next Tuesday.

And he grabbed it when gaining an emphatic victory in the Group 3 Bendigo Cup on his debut for his Newmarket stable after being switched by his new connections from Sir Mark Prescott.

Ridden by expat Irishman Declan Bates, Ebor sixth Sea King finished three and three quarter lengths in front of his rivals to land the last ‘win and you’re in’ race for the ‘race that stops a nation’.

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Britain now has two live challengers for the 2m handicap with Sea King set to join the , at the start line.

Sea King’s odds were slashed to 14-1 from 66-1 by William Hill while Onesmoothoperator is 9-2 second favourite behind market leader Buckaroo on 7-2.

Eustace now has a chance to emulate his brother David, who won the prize in tandem with Ciaron Maher with Gold Trip in 2022 when he trained down under.

Speaking to Racing, Harry Eustace said: “It was brilliant to take this last chance to get into the Melbourne Cup.

“The handicapper confirmed afterwards we were in the 20 even without a penalty but I suspect he might get something, probably half a kilo.”

Sea King was set a weight of 7st 12lb in the original handicap and even with a penalty he won’t have a weight Bates could ride at, so Eustace has turned to Doyle, who will be travelling on from the Breeders’ Cup where she partners Bradsell in the Turf Sprint on Saturday. She made her debut in the race last year, finishing 15th on Future History.

“We have to go through a CT scan tomorrow and the results are back Saturday so as long as they come through okay we’ve got Hollie confirmed,” the trainer said.

“It’s due to the weight as much as anything. Even though a lot of top weights have come out, the weights don’t rise and stay as published so it was a case of the best jockey we could find at that weight.”

Sea King was bought by Australian-based OTI Racing, who also own Docklands, after he ran at York and sent to Eustace to prepare for his mission.

“This was the dream result but we didn’t dare let ourselves entertain it properly until Onesmoothoperator won,” he said. “We had a bit of form which tied in with him and knew if we could get him in as good a form as he was the Ebor he would be very competitive.

“The way the Cup has been cutting up it became more of a genuine possibility than just a hope.”

He continued: “Having a runner in the Melbourne Cup who looks like a legitimate contender is incredibly exciting.

“It’s so hard to do because there are a lot of hoops to jump through just to get to this point so I have to say Terry and the ownership group are a big part of that and the team that came out Laura and Jerome, who have basically trained the horses for the last month.

“The way he trains, his build and pedigree suggests two miles should be fine. He ran well in the Ebor and looked pretty strong through the line.”

Docklands, who finished fifth in the Cox Plate behind Via Sistina, will run again at Flemington a week on Saturday.

“He’s come out of the Cox Plate really well and in all likelihood will head to the mile Group 1 mostly because we read the news of Via Sistina missing the Melbourne Cup and heading to the mile and a quarter race the same Saturday.”