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First Immortal will try and sneak into the Melbourne Cup through Wednesday’s Geelong Cup.
After missing a run in Saturday's Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m), Levi Kavanagh is still hopeful that his lightly raced stayer First Immortal can make the Melbourne Cup field, set to run in the Group 3 Geelong Cup (2400m) on Wednesday.
First Immortal currently sits 39th in the order of entry for the Melbourne Cup and would likely need to gain a penalty in order to sneak into the 24, with Kavanagh, who co-trains in partnership with father Mark, favouring Geelong over Friday's Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m).
"He's nominated for that (Moonee Valley) as well, we'll see where we draw. We got a bad gate the other day and it probably cost us the race. At this stage our plan is to go towards Geelong, if it's a big field we've always got that back up," Kavanagh said.
Lamenting a wide barrier and tough run in the Group 3 Bart Cummings (2520m) when second to Future History, Kavanagh is hoping First Immortal can make amends at Geelong.
"He can go forward or back, it just depends on the pace on the day, he was trapped wide last time, he covered 10 metres more than the winner and we only just got done a nose," Kavanagh said.
It's been 12 years since the last Geelong Cup/Melbourne Cup winning double with Dunaden completing the feat in 2011 and Americain doing the same the year prior, but last year's winner Emissary ran second to Gold Trip and Prince Of Arran also ran second to Vow And Declare in 2019.
Whether First Immortal can make the Melbourne Cup field remains to be seen but Kavanagh is happy with the horse and is confident the progressive stayer could run well if afforded the chance.
"We're really happy with him, the plans to try and get him into the Cup, to do that we've probably got to win," Kavanagh said.
"He certainly gets a strong 2500 (metres), we've tried him, he does relax nice and produces a finishing sprint so in our eyes that's a good key attribute for a Cup anyway."
