Drakenstein Stud’s red hot sire Duke Of Marmalade, who has been making his presence felt both as a sire and broodmare sire lately, looks to have ties to a number of Melbourne Cup entrants.
His five time group winning son Marmelo is one of 152 horses who have been nominated for the 2019 G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup (a race in which Marmelo finished second last year).
Marmelo’s trainer Hughie Morrison plans to send the Duke Of Marmalade son straight to the Flemington feature, with Morrison saying, “I think the plan is to give him a couple of weeks off – then go out to Australia at the same time he did last year, and then go straight to the Melbourne Cup. It seemed to work well last year. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will again, but the horse is in good form.
We left him in the Irish St Leger as an option, but I don’t think we will be going there unless there is a huge change of heart. If the race was in August then we might have gone there.”
Winner of the recent G2 Darley Prix Kergorlay (a race he won previously in 2017), Marmelo has won seven times thus far, with his current earnings standing at £1,151,138.
Duke Of Marmalade’s G1 placed half-brother Norway has been entered for both the G1 Lexus Melbourne Cup and G1 Stella Artoist Caulfield Cup, as that son of Galileo bids to become the third G1 winner for his outstanding dam Love Me True (following Duke Of Marmalade and Investec Derby winner and sire Ruler Of The World).
The regally bred Duke Of Marmalade, whose Chalice Stakes winning close relative Love So Deep could be aimed next at the G1 E.P. Taylor Stakes, made a spectacular start with his first South African crop already having produced six stakes winners –notably the graded winners Santa Clara, Seville Orange, Temple Grafin, and Nastergal.
-Sarah Whitelaw / capebreeders.co.za
