Geoffrey Freer Stakes winner Furthur heading to the Melbourne Cup

The three-year-old Waldgeist colt recorded his second win of the season at Newbury when beating Epic Poet by three lengths in the 1m5f Group 3 contest last month, and though since beaten in the St Leger at Doncaster, connections have decided to chance their arm ‘Down Under’.

Speaking on Thursday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Singh, who leads The Merry Pranksters syndicate that co-owns Furthur, explained: “We’re going into quarantine on Sunday with a view to running in the Melbourne Cup. He won’t have a run before then.

“He is 20th on the order of entry at the moment and if we can get him there fit and well, then he's guaranteed a run, which is a big part of it because the costs are not insubstantial.

“If you were going down just hoping you might get a run, that might be a bit too much of a gamble, but because we know we are getting a run and Racing Victoria now pay prize money down to 24th position, which will certainly contribute to a large amount of the costs, it was something that was too good an opportunity to refuse and especially given the weight.

“I know Scandinavia is now not going, but he was going to have to give our horse over 7lb for a four and a half-length defeat. We thought that was a very attractive weight for us and so we thought that was worth having a shot at.”

Although sent off at 18/1 on Town Moor, connections had been hopeful of a big run in the final Classic of the season, but Furthur was eventually beaten into sixth place on testing ground. However, they believe that quicker going will suit the Andrew Balding-trained colt.

Singh explained: “I'd say we were a little bit disappointed. It's hard to run in a St Leger and you've got to be realistic about being able to win a race like that.

“We hoped he might finish a little bit closer but Oisin [Murphy, rider] got off and said that he got very excited turning for home, but that the horse had wheelspun a little bit on the soft ground.

“I think slightly better ground would have helped him; I'm not saying that he would have accelerated past everything to win, but I think he probably would have run a little bit closer than he did.”

The Melbourne Cup takes place at Lexington on Tuesday, November 4 2025.

More from Sporting Life

• Free bets
• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.