Robert Hickmott preparing challenging campaign for Melbourne Cup prospect Revelare
The aspiring spring stayer, a six-time winner from eight starts, is set to have a jumpout at Ballarat on Thursday.
Revelare has not been sighted publicly since winning at Flemington on March 1, before an untimely illness thwarted a bid to contest the Cup-qualifying Roy Higgins Quality.
Revelare sparked early Cups potential chatter with five wins on the trot, going from 0-64 at Seymour to BM84 Flemington success, in eight weeks.
'He's matured a hell of a lot,' Hickmott said.
'He's got to go a long way to even think about getting into a Melbourne Cup or anything like that … but so far so good.
'He's been a bit lazy the old boy at home, so it will be nice to poke around on the Poly (track) to get him up and about a bit.'
Hickmott has the Cup-qualifying The Bart Cummings (2500m) – October 4 at Flemington – lined up as the 'main goal' to get into the race that stops a nation.
Revelare makes it FIVE wins in a row ðŸ'¥ @Ryanhurdle9 @HickmottRobert pic.twitter.com/RrisYZlXnF
— 7HorseRacing ðŸ�Ž (@7horseracing) March 1, 2025
Hickmott conceded Revelare potentially faced 'a very hard' Caulfield program, including a 1600m Benchmark 100, Listed Heatherlie Stakes (1700m) and Group 3 Foundation Cup (2000m) before The Bart Cummings at Flemington.
Hickmott, who trained Melbourne Cup winners Green Moon (2012) and Almandin (2016), is realistic about the task ahead of Revelare.
'Hope he can handle Caulfield, otherwise we're in a bit of strife,' Hickmott said.
'He's shown good versatility the horse, for a lightly-raced horse, he's ticking a lot of boxes.
'You got to take into account (Revelare has) off-season racing (form), Benchmark racing, although he broke track records.
'He's still got to come up from preparation to preparation … who knows? Only time will tell.'
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