Willie Mullins declared himself 'very, very happy' with the draw for his runners in the Melbourne Cup after arriving in Australia ahead of Tuesday's big race.
The draw was made on Saturday evening (local time) and there were the inevitable winners and losers.
Current favourite Buckaroo, formerly trained by Joseph O'Brien, was a loser after being handed gate 21 but Mullins' second favourite Vauban could be perfectly positioned breaking from 11 while stablemate Absurde is inside him in stall seven.
Mullins landed in Australia on Saturday morning and was pleased with the condition of his two runners having overseen their morning work.
"Horses are in great shape, probably better than me after that journey," Mullins told www.racenet.com.au.
"I got in this morning, they had a little blow, that will be their final gallop and to me they wouldn't blow out a candle after the little piece of work they did. I'm very happy with them, I'm very, very happy with that (barrier draw), I don't think we can blame barriers or anything like that.
"The weather forecast looks good, I think 25-26 degrees and sunny, we should be able to handle that, last year (was tough) on the Irish horses, 30-plus degrees."
There was also good news for Brian Ellison whose Onesmoothoperator was subject to a late scare after picking up a minor cut. The Geelong Cup winner passed a second vet inspection on Saturday morning after being re-plated.
Onesmoothoperator, who provided Ellison with an emotional success in the Northumberland Plate will be ridden by Craig Williams on Tuesday, has pulled up sound according to his handler.
"In some ways everything had gone too well, just waiting for the drama and that was it," Ellison said.
"He pulled a shoe off and cut his heel, just a bit, he's sound, he's sound trotting and he's sound cantering, but we weren't comfortable with him walking, and then today he was fine. He never missed any work, everything is fine."
Onesmoothoperator is drawn in barrier 12, on the outside of Vauban.
Ellison stopped short of looking too far ahead, "still two days to go", but Onesmoothoperator has thrived at Werribee, the training centre for the international runners.
"It's nice, we brought him out with the owners not expecting to get into the Melbourne Cup, the Geelong Cup was a race we picked out," Ellison said.
"We didn't think we were going to win it… everything has gone fantastic, the owners have loved it. He's a really happy horse and sometimes, when you give them one on one attention they thrive on it and he has."
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