Melbourne diary: big Cup move for Rostropovich as O'Brien camp sing his praises

A lot can change in a day. On Wednesday Rostropovich was a $41 hope for the Melbourne Cup. Today he is at $19.

So what's happened to cause that price collapse? Well, it was not a scintillating piece of work. He was not asked to do much this morning, but it was telling that the entire Ballydoyle team came out to watch him work.

The talk among themselves was that he had travelled over particularly well and they were keen to point out he was beaten just half a length by Latrobe when second in the Irish Derby and gets 3lb in the Melbourne Cup from that rival, who is a 14-1 shot.

If that were not enough to get the market moving, O'Brien's travelling head lad TJ Comerford then addressed the press and hammered home the message.

Asked to pick out a horse who had thrived since arriving, he went for Rostropovich and added: "Rostropovich is a grand horse, he's by Frankel, he's a brother to Zoffany, he's just settled in so well and he's got a real light weight in the Melbourne Cup. He won at Leopardstown on Champions Weekend, his last run, and this has been the plan for him, so he could be a dark horse."

On the prospect of taking on Winx and Benbatl in the Cox Plate, Comerford added: "There's a chance he will, we're not sure at the moment and Aidan's considering it. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea as he's going through the motions and really enjoying it. There's no reason why he shouldn't, but that's up to Aidan."

Comerford finished up by saying: "The way I look at it is, if you fancy Latrobe you have to fancy Rostropovich. I fancy Rostropovich as he has 8st and he's getting 3lb for getting beaten half a length, which I'd say is fair."

Cross Counter back in work next week

Charlie Appleby's Melbourne Cup fancy Cross Counter has been on light walking duties since sustaining a laceration to his left fore limb on Sunday that required veterinary attention, but this weekend he will walk and trot with a view to resuming regular work on Monday.

Cross Counter, who is 19th on the order of entry and a best-priced 14-1 for the race that stops a nation, will have his progress monitored by veterinarians over the coming days.

Group 1 golden boy Murphy picks up Cup ride on Prize Money

Oisin Murphy, who has the ungodly task of trying to dethrone Winx aboard the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Benbatl in next week's Cox Plate, has also picked up a Melbourne Cup ride on his mount's stablemate Prize Money. The switch comes 72 hours after he lost his original ride in the race on Count Octave.

Prize Money is currently number 44 on the order of entry and so will need to win a race and pick up a penalty beforehand to have a chance of getting in.

Murphy told Racing.com: "Hopefully Count Octave can bounce back for Chris Waller, because he was a high-class stayer here and I think he has a big future.

"But after his unfortunate setback, Saeed has kindly let me switch on to his horse. He's one who's always improved for a run and seemed in super order before he left and he had a good time out in Dubai. He certainly wouldn't be without a chance in the Melbourne Cup."

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