By Mark Gatt

Pompeii Ruler, the forgotten horse after a year off recovering from an off-fore suspensory ligament injury, is to be aimed at the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double.

Trainer Mick Price is very excited to have his star galloper back and said Pompeii Ruler was jumping out of his skin and is set to return to racing in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes on August 30th at Caulfield.

“I would not expect too much from his first couple of runs as he is not fully wound up, and we want to take him along slowly,” said Price. “But he is such a competitor it would not surprise to see him in the finish.”

Price said he has not ruled out on a Cox Plate Start but he was being specially trained for the Cups double with a lot of longer slower work, but if the horse recaptured the form he was in 18 months ago you would have to consider a start in the Cox Plate.

Pompeii Ruler is lightly raced for a six year old having only 14 starts for seven wins and three minor placings and has won just over $1.5 million in prize money.

Mick Price thinks Pompeii Ruler can recapture the form he showed in the Autumn of 2007. The horse was just about to become the next big thing in Racing before his injury and his 2007 Australian Cup win was outstanding. Likewise his run in the 2006 Cox Plate saw him all but home before getting collared near the finish.

Jockey Craig Newitt said only his inexperience cost him victory.


The writer is a consultant on Melbourne Cup form