Saratoga: Yes, Parchment Party will go to Melbourne Cup

Pin Oak Stud’s Dana and Jim Bernhard said they plan to accept the invitation to make their Birdstone Stakes winner Parchment Party the first U.S.-based horse ever to race in the Group 1, US$6.5 million Melbourne Cup on Nov. 4 in Australia.

“It’s our plan. Go to the Melbourne Cup,” Dana Bernhard said Wednesday at Saratoga, where 4-5 favorite Parchment Party won the listed, $150,000 Birdstone. “Quarantine in England then go on to Australia for quarantine and see how he does.”

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Parchment Party earned an automatic berth into the two-mile Melbourne Cup on the turf at Flemington with his 8 1/2-length win in the Belmont Gold Cup (G3) on June 6. That race was rained off the turf and covered 1 3/4 miles on Saratoga’s main track, the same course and distance as the Birdstone. Hall of Famer John Velázquez rode both victories.

Still winless in two tries on turf, both route races this winter in Florida, the 4-year-old bay colt who was sired by Constitution relished added ground in his last two starts.

"I thought it was good,” trainer Bill Mott said after the Birdstone. “It was not a runaway like the last one but very workmanlike, and he just keeps coming. I guess that’s what you need for these long races. Just one that is not stopping.”

Thanks to a partnership established last year between the New York Racing Association and the Victoria Racing Club, the Belmont Gold Cup became a win-and-you’re-in qualifier for the Melbourne Cup, billed as “the race that stops a nation.” The Grey Wizard won the berth last year, but connections kept him at home for his last three races of 2025.

According to Australia’s Racing.com, Pin Oak Stud rejected its other invitation to a major Melbourne race this year. Three-year-old colt World Beater, trained by Bill Mott’s son Riley, won the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) on Aug. 2. That came with an automatic berth into the US$3.9 million Cox Plate (G1) on Oct. 25.

“It’s quite an ordeal to get over there,” Jim Bernhard said.

U.S. horses must quarantine for two weeks in Europe before being shipped to Australia. Horses competing in the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane will face the same rules.

Bred in Kentucky by Bobby Flay, Parchment Party was a $450,000 purchase at the September 2022 Keeneland yearling sale and is out of winning Tiznow mare Life Well Lived. That makes him a half-brother to both Grade 1 winner American Patriot and to dual graded-stakes-placed Muqtaser. He also is a half to Well Humored, dam of this year’s Woody Stephens (G1) winner Patch Adams.

With the $82,500 he banked in Wednesday’s victory, Parchment Party is 11: 4-1-1 with $411,601 in career earnings. He began his career by winning a pair of 1 1/16-mile tilts as a 2-year-old at Churchill Downs.