RURAL Australia has a live chance in the race that stops a nation with a humbly bred six year old gelding trained at Horsham, in Victoria, set to take it up to racing's aristocracy in the Melbourne Cup tomorrow.
Surprise Baby, trained by Paul Preusker, enters tomorrow's race on the third line of betting at $9 following his slashing fifth in the race last year where he came from last to be beaten less than a length by Vow and Declare.
Despite a strong field assembling for the 3200 metre staying test, featuring some of the biggest names in horse racing in Europe such as Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore team and Andreas Wohler, trainer of the 2014 winner Protectionist, connections of the Wimmera trained galloper are confident they can go one better this year.
Surprise Baby has had a light preparation for this year's race, running in the Feehan Stakes over the mile at Moonee Valley where he ran a solid fourth, before a luckless effort last time out in the Turnbull Stake at Flemington.
Mr Preusker has been quoted as saying he would have been happy to run the horse in the cup without a lead-in run so the camp have no qualms about his fitness.
The barrier gods have also been much kinder than last year, the horse drawing a near ideal gate seven as opposed to barrier 20 in 2019, which meant the gelding had to be snagged back to avoid covering extra ground.
Along with the internationals, Surprise Baby also has to defeat a strong hand of locals, headlined by horses prepared by top trainers such as Danny O'Brien, Ciaron Maher and David Eustace and Chris Waller.
Surprise Baby is the only horse in the race trained in a rural area, although Newcastle trainer Kris Lees has an entry and Mr O'Brien has his base at Barwon Heads on the Bellarine Peninsula just out of Geelong.
If 'The Baby', purchased for just $5500, was to take out the cup it would also be a victory for the local breeding industry.
With northern hemisphere sires dominating the Melbourne Cup in recent years, due to the Australian breeding sector's focus on sprint races, there are only three horses in the Cup with Australian sires and just five with southern hemisphere sires.
Surprise Baby does most of his work at Mr Preusker's headquarters at McKenzie Creek, just south of Horsham, along with some water work at nearby Green Lake, a million miles away from the plush training facilities of many other leading camps, however Mr Preusker's team are confident the 6yo son of Shocking can provide a result that will be celebrated in the Wimmera long into the night.