Jaguar Mail

TWO big hurdles to Craig Williams winning the 150th Melbourne Cup on star Japanese stayer Jaguar Mail are weight and quarantine.

Connections said the Cup was Jaguar Mail's target after Williams won Japan's premier staying race, Sunday's Tenno Sho, on the horse.

But owner Katsumi Yoshida said the weight Jaguar Mail received for the Cup could decide whether he made the trip.

And even if Yoshida approves of the weight Racing Victoria chief handicapper Greg Carpenter allocates - perhaps 57 to 57.5kg - strict quarantine protocols, still in place as a result of Equine Influenza - could thwart the trip.

Japanese trainers have told Racing Victoria that any Cup plans will be abandoned if quarantine requirements are not settled this month.

Carpenter said Jaguar Mail was a better performed horse than Pop Rock and similar to Delta Blues, the Yoshida-owned pair that ran the 2006 Melbourne Cup quinella. Japanese horses have not run since.

Delta Blues carried 56kg - 3kg more than Pop Rock. The minimum that year was 46kg. It was 50kg last year.

Chief executive Dale Monteith said the Victorian Racing Club wanted a special 150th Cup and Japanese horses would bring much to the race.

Williams, who has ridden three winners in Japan since taking up a three-month contract last week, said Jaguar Mail would be a big Cup chance.

"Connections have said they'd think strongly about coming if he got a reasonable weight," he said. "If he was to run in a Melbourne Cup he'd run very, very well."