Joseph O'Brien looks ahead to the Melbourne Cup with Al Riffa and Goodie Two Shoes

O'Brien has won the Flemington showpiece twice in his relatively short training career and is responsible for two of the 120 nominations received for this year's renewal.

The pair have contrasting profiles with Al Riffa a Group 1 winner and rated 118 whereas Goodie Two Shoes is a dual purpose performer who has progressed on the level this summer, winning twice at Listed level before adding a Group 3 and finishing third in the Group 2 Lillie Langtry Stakes.

Al Riffa, recently purchased by Australian Bloodstock, was winning for the first time in almost a year when landing the Curragh Cup in July, a performance that O'Brien believes is as good as he's produced.

"He was really impressive the last day," he told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast.

"The figures really back up that he was right at his best and you'd be hopeful that the extra two furlongs wouldn't inconvenience him.

"Although he's going to carry weight for being as a good a horse as he is, we think he has a lot of class. I know the weight [for age] scale is slightly different in Australia so the weight he'll be carrying, he basically has been carrying it in every race so far this year and he carried a lot more the last day.

"So, I think the main danger will be something that's very well handicapped in there in the bottom of the weights as he always will have in those big handicaps but we feel like he has the right attributes for the race. He is a classy horse.

"He's probably going to head on to the Irish Leger here in Champions Weekend in a few weeks' time and then the plan would be, all being smooth, that we'd be able to plot our way to the Cup."

Despite the recent change of ownership, Al Riffa is expected to remain in training with O'Brien beyond the Melbourne Cup and the trainer is already planning a globetrotting campaign.

"I think the plan is that if all went smooth in Melbourne, that he might race in Hong Kong on the way home," he said. "So he'd stick with us and he might then come back to Europe with a view to, you know, whether it's something in the Middle East or a path towards Royal Ascot next summer.

"It's a hugely exciting plan to be able to make with a horse like him."

Connections are hopeful that Goodie Two Shoes, who is owned by JP McManus, will make the cut without recourse to racing in Australia prior to the Melbourne Cup in a bid to secure her berth.

"We're hoping that she might make the field as she is at the moment and so her next run would be in the Melbourne Cup. She's going to be right down the bottom of the weights, I expect, if she can make the field," he continued.

"The plan is for her to travel as long as everything goes smoothly between now and then.

"She loves fast ground and she has a very good turn of foot. I think she has the right attributes for the race and she'll have no weight on her back so it will be interesting to see how she goes."

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