With a weight lifted from his shoulders after riding champion mare Winx to a third consecutive Cox Plate, Dunedoo’s Hugh Bowman has set his sights on winning his first Melbourne Cup aboard Marmelo.
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The jockey was impressed with the horse's eye-catching sixth place in the Caulfield Cup and he hasn’t changed his tune after riding the five-year-old in trackwork at Werribee.
"He certainly knows what he is here for and he is working with purpose," Bowman said.
"I loved his last 200 metres in the Caulfield Cup. I love his temperament and he has got an excellent action."
The horse's trainer Hughie Morrison, who arrived from England this week for the big race, is pleased with the horse's preparation but realistic about his chances.
"I'm not going to get carried away," Morrison said.
"English trainers aren't as inclined to over-analyse things. That suits me," Bowman quipped.
Time will tell whether the experience of running in Australia before the cup was the right course to take ,but both Morrison and Bowman suspect it will help.
"History would say he will be better for having the experience and I am pleased he had it," Bowman said.
The 37-year-old jockey said he was on cloud nine until Tuesday after riding Winx to her third Cox Plate but he had now refocused on the Flemington carnival.
"The expectation of what was hopefully going to happen was unavoidable for me and everyone involved and the closer we got to the day, the more I felt that," Bowman said.
