He seems to be sailing under the radar but the hulking UK stayer Muntahaa is the horse many overseas raiders fear in Tuesday’s $7 million Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

Sure, the respect being given to Muntahaa by rival overseas stables is due in part to the horse himself and his impressive UK form.

However their regard for Muntahaa’s Melbourne Cup prospects is due largely to the high esteem they hold for his master trainer John Gosden.

There is no better trainer in the world today than John Gosden, a bold statement but hard to discount on the results he has enjoyed at the top level, not just this year but consistently for the last two decades.

It’s hard to find a trainer anywhere – Chris Waller and Darren Weir in Australia, America’s Bob Baffert or Aidan O’Brien, Saeed bin Suroor, Charlie Appleby and Andre Fabre in Europe to name the obvious – who can match Gosden’s results this year.

Gosden has been a constant at the top level in the UK and across the northern hemisphere for years. He was champion UK flat trainer in 2012 and 2015 and this year added a third title after a season that has been the crowning glory of his long career.

Gosden. 67 and bestowed with an OBE by Queen Elizabeth, has trained more than 3000 winners during his career. They include more than 100 Group One races and in excess of 360 Group and Listed events.

His majors include 15 British, Irish and French classics (2 Epsom Derbys, 2 Oaks, 1000 Guineas and four St Legers, Irish Derby, Irish Oaks, Irish 2000 Guineas, Prix Diane and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches twice), the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe three times in the last four years and the King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes three times.

Based in California for 10 years in the 1980s, he has also won more than 600 races in the US where his numerous G1 wins include five Breeders Cup races. His other international victories include the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan and G1 races in Germany and Italy.

The big names Gosden has prepared over the years include Golden Horn, Benny The Dip, Nathaniel, Oasis Dream, Taghrooda, Raven’s Pass, Kingman, Jack Hobbs, The Fugue and Da Re Mi.

Yet for all his past successes Gosden’s Clarehaven Stables have not enjoyed a year quite like 2018.

His 36 Group and Listed winners this year include 12 G1 wins with the likes of champions Cracksman, Roaring Lion, Enable, Stradivarius and Too Darn Hot earning his stable prize money of more than £8.3 million, over £2 million clear of closest rival Aidan O’Brien.

His star studded team swept through Europe’s biggest races winning the Arc (Enable), Ascot Gold Cup (Stradivarius), UK Champion Stakes (Cracksman), Coronation Cup (Cracksman), Dewhurst Stakes (Too Darn Hot), Eclipse Stakes (Roaring Lion), Goodwood Cup (Stradivarius), Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Roaring Lion), St. James's Palace Stakes (Without Parole), Prix Ganay (Cracksman), Irish Champion Stakes (Roaring Lion) and Juddmonte International (Roaring Lion).

Champion mare Enable gave Gosden his fifth Breeders Cup success on the weekend when she recorded her seventh G1 win in the BC Turf at Churchill Downs.

At the next level there has been Muntahaa, who earned his trip to Melbourne with one of the most dominant handicap wins seen in the UK in recent years when he triumphed in the time-honoured Ebor at York in August in course record time.

Gosden had been planning Muntahaa’s Melbourne Cup assault for six months and identified the Ebor – the richest flat handicap run in the UK worth 500,000 pounds - as the perfect springboard to a start at Flemington.

A 6YO son of the noted sire Dansili, the Sheikh Hamdan-owned Muntahaa recorded his fourth win in 15 starts when he carried 61kg in the Ebor over 2787m on August 25, the ease of his 3.5 lengths win one of the highest rating performances in the race in the last 15 years.

Muntahaa Photo by (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)

It’s a win deserving of the highest respect from a Melbourne Cup perspective as Ebor form has been making an impact in Australia for some 20 years.

Ebor winners to perform with distinction in the Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup include Quick Ransom, Give The Slip, Hugs Dancer, Purple Moon, All The Good, Heartbreak City and Nakeeta.

However the worth of the race as a spring form reference goes much deeper. Horses to come out of the Ebor who have made an impact at the spring carnival include Harbour Dues, Yorkshire, Yavana’s Pace, Travelmate, Bauer, Mount Athos, Motivado, Opinion, Oceanographer[ and Wicklow Brave.

Muntahaa’s arrival two weeks ago marks only the third time Gosden has focused on Australia, his two previous Melbourne carnival visits in 2012 and 2014 being with the same horse Gatewood.

In 2012 Gatewood won the Geelong Cup after finishing seventh in the Caulfield Cup. He then ran sixth in the Lexus Stakes at Flemington but missed out on a Melbourne Cup start that year due to his light weight.

Gosden returned with Gatewood in 2014 with the gelding going straight into the Melbourne Cup without a local preliminary. He could manage only 12th behind Protectionist.

In between the OTI Racing-owned Gatewood spent a fruitless four-start autumn campaign in Australia in 2013 under the training of Chris Waller before he was sent back to Gosden in the UK.

Be assured Muntahaa is a far different beast to Gatewood in talent, performance and size. Notably he boasts some strong form lines against several prominent rivals he will meet in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

Before his Ebor win Muntahaa finished fourth in the G2 Princess Of Wales’s Stakes over 2400m at Newmarket won by subsequent Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution with both horses carrying 60kg. Muntahaa is 2kg better off next Tuesday.

Other highlights in Muntahaa’s form include his maiden win as a 3YO when he beat fellow Melbourne Cup contender Marmelo by six lengths with subsequent G2 winner Alyssa in third.

His 3YO form also included a win in a Listed race at Chester, fourth in the G1 St Leger (Moonee Valley Cup winner Ventura Storm was second) and third in the G2 King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

As a 4YO he won the G3 John Porter Stakes over 2418m at Newbury and this year he was again placed at Royal Ascot in the Listed Wolferton Stakes (2000m) on his way to winning the Ebor when he relished the return to his best distance range, all his four wins being at 2400m to 2800m on good surfaces.

Interestingly the 2017 Ebor winner Nakeeta became the first horse trained in Scotland to compete in the Melbourne Cup when he finished fifth behind Rekindling last year.

He returns to Flemington this year off the same program but was a well beaten seventh behind Muntahaa in a much stronger edition of the Ebor in August.

Muntahaa produced a career best performance in the Ebor from a wide gate (21) that augers well for his Melbourne Cup chances under Gosden’s training.

At York the big gelding was a lot calmer and tractable than he has been known to be in earlier races, perhaps a sign that he has now come of age as a high class stayer.

His stamina and tactical speed will be valuable assets in a fast run Melbourne Cup providing he gets his preferred good ground.