Tawny Port bypasses Melbourne Cup over travel and quarantine requirements
The Belmont Gold Cup winner had an automatic Cup berth, but connections have chosen a return to Woodbine, where he was beaten a nose last year.
Tawny Port will miss the $10.2 million Melbourne Cup on November 3, with Miguel Clement’s stable confirming he will run instead in Saturday’s Canadian International at Woodbine.
“US horses must first travel to the UK to complete a two-week pre-export quarantine before landing in Australia,” the stable said.
The New York Racing Association and Victoria Racing Club offered an automatic Melbourne Cup berth to the winner of June’s two-mile Group 2 Belmont Gold Cup at Saratoga. Tawny Port won it, but his name is absent from the 71 first acceptances for the 3200-metre Cup released on Tuesday.
Tawny Port’s second graded-stakes win of the season came in the 3300-metre Bowling Green Gold Cup Invitational Stakes at Kentucky Downs on September 9, when he beat Lambeth by three-quarters of a length. As *The Straight* reported at the time, Clement said the owner favoured the Canadian International followed by races in New York.
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