A US-trained horse is running in the Melbourne Cup for the first time. This is why it took 165 years
There is nothing like rain to ruin a party, particularly one where participants have travelled around the world to join the fun.
As the water seeped from the heavens a day out from the Melbourne Cup, the connections of historic American hopeful Parchment Party had cause to weep into their Budweisers and lower the Stars and Stripes to half-mast.
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If the weather for Derby Day was magnificent, Melbourne did its most Melbourne thing by following a sweaty Sunday where the temperature hovered in the low 30s until late in the night with an absolute stinker on Monday.
As a result, the track at Flemington is certain to be heavy for Melbourne Cup day, and that will not help Parchment Party.
But here is the twist in what is a great tale nonetheless given the spirit of adventure and sport, and the love of horse racing, has driven the ambitious bid from the land of the free, with the connections of Parchment Party earning credit for having a crack.
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Without heavy rain, Parchment Party would not have been here in the first place. The stallion secured a golden ticket by winning the Belmont Gold Cup, but it only started because rain forced that race to be transferred from grass to dirt.
If Parchment Party’s trainer Bill Mott is to be trusted — and as a Hall of Famer who has won some of the world’s great races, he clearly knows a thing or two about peaking a nag for big ones — the arrival of the big wet on Monday will dampen enthusiasm.
“They called for a little bit of rain over there, which would not be in our favour,” Mott, who had Breeders Cup commitments in the US on the weekend, told FanDuel TV in a recent interview.
“I think we were hoping the turf will be really firm and it would probably emulate more of a dirt track. For us, we would prefer real firm ground, but we’ll just have to roll with the punches and see what happens.”
US horse Parchment Party winning the Birdstone Stakes in Saratoga Picture: SuppliedSource: Supplied
THE GOLDEN TICKET
It may have been made famous by Willy Wonka, but in general terms, golden tickets into the Melbourne Cup are earned, not gifted through flukes of fortune, as much as a case could be made for the latter in the instance of Parchment Party.
There are now eight Golden Ticket entry races for the Melbourne Cup, with the Ebor Handicap and the Belmont Gold Cup the international races that guarantee the winner an opportunity to run in the world’s richest staying race.
The Belmont Gold Cup, which is held in June at the historic Saratoga racetrack in New York State, was added to the roster last year and is a support race to the famous Belmont Stakes, which is the last leg of the famous American triple crown.
Its stakes of about A$380,000 pale in comparison to the $10 million Melbourne Cup, but it does have a reputation as an international staying race with Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Charlie Appleby securing the prize in 2023 with Siskany.
Leigh Jordon, a long-time Victorian Racing Club executive who helped foster the international appeal of the Melbourne Cup, said when the American race was added to the golden ticket roster last year that he hoped it would draw horses from the US.
“The introduction of the Belmont Gold Cup as a golden ticket opens up another pathway for international staying horses to compete in the Lexus Melbourne Cup,” he said.
“The race is an already established international contest and we look forward to potentially welcoming this year’s winner to Melbourne in the spring.”
As a form reference, past winners of the Belmont Gold Cup have raced in Australia prior to the golden ticket boost, though none have made it to the Melbourne Cup.
2022 victor Loft ran ninth in the Sydney Cup last year and has recently raced with distinction over the hurdles.
Amade, which narrowly missed a start in 2023 after winning the Geelong Cup, was based in Europe when it won the US race in 2019 and ran in the Brisbane Cup last year. It was retired after finishing seventh in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes a year ago.
Baron Samedi and Red Cardinal are other former European-trained Belmont Gold Cup victors who ended their racing careers in Australia.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – OCTOBER 30: Jo Robinson riding Parchment Party (USA) during a trackwork session at Werribee Racecourse on October 30, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
THE TRAVEL FACTOR
It is worth noting there have been American-bred horses compete in the Melbourne Cup, including the 1980 winner Belldale Ball. But Parchment Party is the first to be trained by and ridden and raced by American interests.
The Americans involved are legends, by the way.
Mott trained the mighty Cigar, a dirt-track champion who won 16 races in succession in the mid-1990s including the Dubai World Cup on route to becoming the highest-earning galloper in America, finishing just US$185 short of hitting the US$10 million mark.
Jockey Johnny Velazquez is a top-gun as well, having piloted the winners of 15 Breeders Cup races and six Triple Crown races, with three Kentucky Derbies featuring in that haul.
The 54-year-old, who reportedly learned how to speak English by watching The Little Mermaid, has been a permanent fixture in the US top 10 earnings list this century and is a record-breaker in the saddle.
The question as to why Parchment Party is the first US-trained stayer to have a crack at the Melbourne Cup is one of intrigue.
Part of it relates to the standard of horses in the US, where there is less of a priority on programming staying races and, as a result, breeding stayers than there is in Europe. Australia, to an extent, is struggling with this issue as well.
There is also the prize money. The Europeans envy the prize money on offer in Australia. The gap is less significant for the major races in the US.
As an example, the Breeders Cup on Saturday won by the Irish-trained Ethical Diamond, also a victor in the other international golden ticket entry race The Ebor earlier this season, carried A$10.6 million in prize money.
Then there is the logistics involved, with Parchment Party travelling twice as far as his international rivals just to compete on Tuesday due to the strict requirements of Australia’s quarantine laws.
“The logistics are pretty tough,” the horse’s American handler Jo Robinson told RaceNet last weekend.
“With the quarantine, there isn’t a facility in the US that is Racing Victoria approved. So we had to fly from the US to England and do two weeks’ quarantine there then come out here.
“We’ve done twice as much travel as the other ones already. Whenever you move horses or travel them, you’re always at risk of them getting sick of not settling in or adjusting to different climates or different surfaces. It becomes quite an intense thing.”
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International horse Parchment Party (USA) arrives at Tullamarine Airport on October 15, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by George Sal/Racing Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
AMERICA’S RACING STABLE
Parchment Party only had a crack at the Belmont Gold Cup when it was switched from grass to dirt due to heavy rain and it has never actually won a race on a grass track.
Mott, who has trained the winner of 10 Breeders Cup races, said he was pleased with how Parchment Party has adapted to the different challenges thrown its way in its journey from New York to England and on to Australia over the past six weeks.
“It’s been quite a process in getting there. We had to ship from New York. We had to go to England for two weeks’ quarantine in Newmarket and from there, we had to fly to Australia and we’ve been in quarantine there, but always allowed to train,” he told FanDuel TV, as reported by racing.com
“We had different training scenarios. At Newmarket, we’re going up the hills and up to the gallops, the straightaways, so Parchment Party has had to adapt and we’ve had to adapt a little but from what our traditional training is here on an oval track. But he has taken it well.
“He looks good and he seems to be happy and, so far, we haven’t had any setbacks. I’ve seen videos … but I think we have been able to maintain a good amount of fitness with what we were able to do.”
The odds may be against Parchment Party. The commute, after all, has been a killer. The deluge is less than ideal as well.
But history is made in the Melbourne Cup. Vintage Crop delivered for Ireland and the rest of the world back in 1993. And co-owners Jim and Dana Bernhard, who also run Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky, are up for the adventure as well.
“This will be our first trip to Australia, so to be able to experience your beautiful country while competing in a race of such global significance is something we could only dream of when we first got involved in racing,” they said last month.
“The Melbourne Cup is one of the biggest races in the world and we have heard all about the prestige it carries, so we are all really excited.
“This will be our first international runner, and for it to be a history-maker is such an honour. Our goal has always been to become ‘America’s racing stable’ and to have a team of horses that the general public would want to root for.”
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 01: Jo Robinson draws barrier three for Parchment Party at the Melbourne Cup barrier draw after 2025 Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse on November 01, 2025 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
