Il Paradiso finished third at the Melbourne Cup 2019 and hopes were high the four-year-old would be able to do even better in this year’s addition of the famous horse race. Those hopes have been dashed with news of Il Paradiso sustaining an injury and now unable to compete at the Melbourne cup 2020.
Trainer Chris Waller’s news of Il Paradiso’s injury was not good. The two-time race winner suffered a mild tendon strain to his near foreleg. Although the injury was labelled as “mild” it is significant enough to keep Il Paradiso out of action for the remainder of 2020.
Il Paradiso was equal favourite to win the Melbourne Cup 2020. The Waller-trained horsed finished eighth out of nine starters in a 1030-metre Rosehill trial on the 25th of February. The trial was Il Paradiso’s only public appearance of the year prior to sustaining the injury. The injury occurred as Il Paradiso returned to training during the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
Expectations were incredibly high that Il Paradiso could win the Melbourne Cup 2020. His performance last year at the race led Melbourne-based businessman Aziz “Ozzie” Kheir and an Australian horse racing consortium to acquire a controlling interest in him. Their purchase of Il Paradiso saw Waller take over the reins of training from Aidan O’Brien.
Although the autumn and spring race carnivals are now off the table for Il Paradiso, the injury is not career ending. Il Paradiso will need time to recover and let the tendon heal before returning to training. Il Paradiso could return stronger in 2021 after having a full 12 months to rest and recovery from the injury.
Sportsbooks were notified to remove Il Paradiso from their markets following the announcement of the injury. King of Leogrance, Vow and Declare, Technician, and Search for a Song are now the joint favourites to win the Melbourne Cup 2020.
Melbourne Cup 2020
The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most famous horse race. It is the country’s equivalent to the United Kingdom’s Grand National and the United States Kentucky Derby. Race fans descend on Flemington Racecourse on the first Tuesday of every November. The race is such a major occasion that it is a public holiday in Victoria.
The first race at Flemington Racecourse was in 1861 and Melbourne Cup Day has been observed ever since. The first Melbourne Cup was won by Archer, who pulled off a double claiming victory the following year.
Ten races are run during the Melbourne Cup with the headline race being the cup fixture itself. The Melbourne Cup has long been known as the “race that stops a nation” as all eyes in Australia tune into watch the finish.
The Melbourne Cup is the second-most lucrative horse race Down Under and offers $8 million in prize purse money. The winning team receives a whopping $4.4m and pays out all the way down to the 12th-place finisher. Twelfth place receives $160,000, which is more than the winner prize money offered in weekly races around Australia. The winning jockey at the Melbourne Cup takes home 5% of the winnings, which means the top rider bags more than $200,000 in cash.