MIAMI BOUND FOR MELBOURNE CUP

Miami Bound's Melbourne Cup aspirations were revived on a Soft Valley surface as Danny O'Brien's VRC Oaks winner claimed Saturday's $300,000 Group 2 McCafe Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m).

O'Brien had hinted Miami Bound would bypass the Melbourne Cup after finishing sixth in the G2 Herbert Power Stakes (2400m) at Caulfield a fortnight ago.

"She's struggling to take the step up against the open-age horses to be fair, she's going as well as she can, but is not quite up to this level," O'Brien said of Miami Bound following the Herbert Power.

However, Miami Bound ($26), a daughter of Reliable Man out of 2007 VRC Oaks winner Arapaho Miss, returned to winning form in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup, swooping off a strong tempo to overrun Shared Ambition ($4.20 favourite) by 2.5 lengths.

"She gave us a great thrill last spring in the Oaks and it's still a great effort to come back here and beat all the boys in the Moonee Valley Cup," O'Brien said.

"We've been really pleased with her, but she has been running on firm tracks and probably at unsuitable distances.

"She was okay in the Herbert Power but that was on a Good (3). Soft (7) today and she grew a leg - she was never going to get beaten."

Miami Bound firmed from $201 into $34 for the Melbourne Cup with Sportsbet following the win and O'Brien confirmed her participation: "I would think she'd definitely be an acceptor now, she won that impressively, when you're that close it is pretty hard not to run.”

"It's more a difficult essay for those fillies that had won an Oaks and come and win a Melbourne Cup, I don't think it's been done for 30 or 40 years. I think we'll be there on the first Tuesday and we'll give it a crack."

This year's Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes winner Oceanex ($10) ran third, with Etah James ($31) a further length away in fourth.

Oceanex gained ballot-free exemption for the Melbourne Cup by winning the Andrew Ramsden while this year's Sydney Cup winner Etah James appears to have done enough to secure a spot in the Melbourne Cup as well.

Shared Ambition in finishing runner-up in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup has now passed the first ballot clause for the Melbourne Cup but sits outside the top 24 in the elimination order.

Miami Bound provided jockey Jamie Kah with her third victory on Cox Plate Day. Her earlier wins came aboard two-year-old first starter Sneaky Five in the Inglis Banner and Sovereign Award in the Powerflo Solutions Stakes.

By Carl Di Iorio for Racing.com