The Melbourne Spring Carnival 2012 will be coming upon us sooner than we think so Great Racehorses’ “Hyperion” (Robert Bishop) and “Carbine” (Andrew Beattie) are turning their minds to think about who may be the likely contenders in this year’s three big races, the Caulfield Cup on Saturday 20 October, the WS Cox Plate on Saturday 27 October and the Melbourne Cup itself on Tuesday 6 November.

“Hyperion” (interviewed at Racing Headquarters in Sydney) started by focussing on the 2012 Melbourne Cup saying “I like to have three parallel lists going at this time of year, firstly the Australian horses likely to contend either or both of the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup, secondly the possible overseas contenders for the Melbourne Cup and, thirdly, the Cox Plate players. I keep these lists separate because history tells me that Cox Plate horses have that target usually as their sole target in the Spring Carnival and overseas horses usually use the Caulfield Cup as a warm up for the Melbourne Cup after their quarantine and arrival rather than be trained hard for that race as the ultimate target”.

Hyperion continued “Carbine picked Lucas Cranach very early in last year’s build up to the Melbourne Cup and was nearly rewarded for his early choice when Lucas Cranach finished third behind Dunaden and Red Cadeaux with 2010 winner Americain in fourth. It is sad to see that Lucas Cranach has been ruled out of the Spring Carnival already through injury but three of last year''s first four could line up again. I thought Americain was a special winner two years ago but only Peter Pan in 1934 won a second Melbourne Cup with a year’s gap after winning first in 1932".

Hyperion continued “I’m interested to see which foreign horses will be out this year. Runners trained by Dermot Weld, Godolphin and Luca Cumani will command respect and maybe we will see some Japanese stayers and even a runner from Coolmore. Cumani has said that last week’s Goodwood winner Quest for Peace is a contender and I think he will want two or three from his stable to make the trip worthwhile. One day Godolphin will go one better than their two seconds and maybe we will another quality Japanese challenge this year”.

The Caulfield Cup is an important lead up to Melbourne Cup and will be run during the Spring Carnival over 2400 metres at Caulfield racecourse on 20 October 2012.

Carbine commented "Five year old mare Southern Speed, last year’s Cup winner by 1.5 lengths going away, will be looking to go back-to-back in the event after continuing her good form in the autumn when she had six starts, with her best result being a win in the Listed John Dillon Stakes first-up from a spell. She later confirmed her talent when placing 2nd to the Peter Moody trained Manighar by a nose in the Group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington.

Manighar is also nominated for this year’s Cup". Southern Speed has won five of her 19 races and has earned more than $2.4 million in prizemoney. Carbine continued "Another exciting addition to the 2012 Caulfield Cup nominations is the Ed Dunlop trained Red Cadeaux, who placed a lip 2nd behind the Mikel Delzangles raider Dunaden in the tightest Melbourne Cup finish in history last year.The six-year-old has been placed in all of his starts this preparation, running third to Sea Moon in the 1.5 miles Hardwicke Stakes when Carbine was present at Royal Ascot in June, with his most recent result being a 3rd in the Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Goldsmiths Stakes at Newmarket Racecourse in England in July".

"His conqueror at Flemington, the French horse Dunaden, is also nominated for the 2012 Caulfield Cup and will be looking to feature heavily in the Spring Carnival again in 2012."

"Other interesting nominations are the unbeaten Coolmore 4yo mare Atlantic Jewel, footballer Michael Owen’s Brown Panther, the Robert Smerdon trained Mosheen, Anthony Freedman’s Fruehling and the Lloyd Williams owned and Robert Hickmott trained pair of Green Moon and English St Leger placed Seville". Carbine’s favourite out of the above is Fruehling, a horse who missed runs in the Brisbane Winter Carnival through being emergency on the day.

Carbine continued with his views on the Cox Plate - "This 2040 metre weight for age championship will be run at Moonee Valley on October 27th 2012. This race is usually won by a champion horse and no doubt 2012 will be no different with the quality of this year''s nominations". Gai Waterhouse has the unbeaten 3yo Pierro entered.

"This colt took all before him in his juvenile year, winning the triple crown, Golden Slipper, Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes over 1600 metres at Royal Randwick. He will contest the Caulfield Guineas earlier in this campaign" added Carbine. He will have Black Caviar’s half-brother, the exciting Team Hawkes trained, Patinack Farm owned, All Too Hard out to prove it all too easy. This magnificent colt is early favourite for the $1,000,000 G1 Golden Rose on September 15th.

The 2012 AJC Australian Derby was won by Victorian Pat Carey trained Ethiopia from Team Hawkes trained Polish Knight and these two could be in the mix come Cox Plate Day. Sadly Atlantic Jewel is out for the spring.

Multiple G1 winner Mosheen is also nominated but Carbine has been keeping an eye on a former German trained horse with good form in Europe, Budai, trained by a rejuvenated David Hayes. "This 7yo horse ran a good second to Cirrus des Aigles, conqueror of So You Think in the 2011 Champion Stakes at Ascot, in the 1950 metres G2 Prix Dollar on a slow track at Longchamp, Paris. He also ran 2nd to Vision D’Etat, a French Derby winner in a G3, also on a slow track, at Deauville. Melbourne’s weather in the Spring can, on occasion, as we all know, be rather wet".

Good punting!