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Assign has moved up the Melbourne Cup order of entry and is expected to run in the race that stops the nation after being re-handicapped to 51kg.
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Racing Victoria’s chief handicapper Greg Carpenter officially added the extra kilo to the six-year-old on Monday to take him up to 27th on the order of entry.
“Assign was a gutsy winner of the Herbert Power Stakes, narrowly holding off Big Memory and the fast-finishing Pemberley at Caulfield,” Carpenter said.
“A 1kg penalty is the same as that which was given to Linton in 2010 before he finished 21st in the Emirates Melbourne Cup.”
Assign and owner Lloyd Williams have been making big gains in the last few days, cutting down from 39th in the order to 32nd, after taking out the Group 2 Herbert Power Stakes over the weekend by half a head.
The end goal of a run in the Melbourne Cup continues to become more and more realistic as they edge towards the 24-horse field limit.
Coming off the aforementioned Herbert Power Stakes win, Assign also ran a second place finish at the Harry White Classic in September, and is also shaping up well for a strong finish at the Bendigo Cup in two weeks time.
While not a raging favourite by any means, the gelding will be taking a lot of momentum and solid form into the big race.
The last horse to win the Herbert Power-Melbourne Cup double was Rogan Josh back in 1999.
More recently, though, Protectionist finished took out the 2014 edition of the Melbourne Cup after a fourth place finish in the Herbert Power Stakes.
Shocking was another that took Herbert Power form into the big race, finished second in 2009 before going on to win both the Lexus Stakes and Melbourne Cup that same year.
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