“Unlucky for us, lucky for them”: Aidan O’Brien believes Jan Brueghel was a Melbourne Cup “handicap blot”

Master Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien truly believes Jan Brueghel would have won the Melbourne Cup had he been allowed to run in the race.

O’Brien alluded to just that when he was asked of the decision by Racing Victoria (RV) vets to scratch the unbeaten horse for failing a veterinary inspection.

Jan Brueghel, once the Cup favourite, was in good order according to both O’Brien and Coolmore’s Tom Magnier who broke the news on SENTrack’s Giddy Up on Tuesday morning.

O’Brien was asked by British racing journalist/broadcaster Matt Chapman if he could believe that Jan Brueghel had been withdrawn from the great race at Flemington next week.

“No, everything was perfect,” O’Brien told Sky Sports.

“He went through all the hoops, he had all the scans, and then there was another scan he had to do down there.

“Our vets looked at them and said they were fine, but the Australian vets weren’t happy with them.”

O’Brien said that given Jan Brueghel’s sparkling form in four career starts, the weight of 54kg and the booking of superstar jockey Ryan Moore would have been the perfect formula to break his Melbourne Cup duck.

He says while it is unlucky for his stable and the ownership group, he insists it is lucky for the locals and other international hopes that Jan Brueghel will not be there on the first Tuesday in November, describing it as a “handicap blot”.

“So I suppose the way to look at it is it’s unlucky for us, it’s probably lucky for them because we think he’s a Group 1 horse proper,” O’Brien continued.

“An improving Group 1 horse in a handicap (carrying 54kg) with Ryan Moore on him…

“It’s easy to say it now but we thought he was a massive handicap blot. But that’s the way it is, they’re the rules and that’s what they decided.

“We’ll get him back, regroup and we’ll see if we can take him to Hong Kong for the mile and a half and go from there.”

Furthermore, O’Brien feels the decision made by the RV vets was more of an opinion rather than an objective view, but he has to accept their judgment.

“Most scans are a view or an opinion,” he added.

“He had the most rigorous scans he could go through and then another scan in the last few days. He’d never trotted better or moved better, everything was perfect, but they said there was a little shadow on the front leg and on the hind leg.

“Horses have fissures, very few turn into fractures. It’s probably gone a little bit ridiculous, but that’s the way it is.

“It comes a point where it becomes a little bit ridiculous. They’re the rules, that’s their decision.

“Like I said, it was unlucky for us, lucky for them.”

The scratching of Jan Brueghel has changed the Melbourne Cup market which now has Buckaroo and Onesmoothoperator as joint $5 favourites with Sportsbet ahead of Cox Plate champion Via Sistina ($5.50), who is doubtful, and last year’s beaten favourite Vauban ($7) for Irish trainer Willie Mullins.

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