RACING NEWS:IT APPEARS the shadow of the "team tactics" controversies that have dogged Aidan O'Brien's team all year may have followed them to Australia ahead of next week's Melbourne Cup.

Johnny Murtagh is expected to arrive in Melbourne today in plenty of time to team up with Septimus ahead of the "race that stops a nation" along with his colleagues Colm O'Donoghue (Honolulu) and Wayne Lordan (Alessandro Volta).

Every international jockey riding at Flemington in the spring carnival will be advised by Racing Victoria officials about local rules regarding every horse being ridden to secure its best position irrespective of whether its owner has other runners in the race.

However, attention on the matter of pacemakers, and the role of both Honolulu and Alessandro Volta in the cup, has been rekindled by the English-based trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam who has reportedly said it is up to Racing Victoria stewards to police the rule that bans pacemakers in Australian racing.

Chapple-Hyam has had a setback with her own runner Yellowstone, ironically a €625,000 purchase out of Ballydoyle, who is a doubtful runner after being cast in his box.

However, as a daughter of the former Australian party leader, Andrew Peacock, her profile Down Under is considerable and she has been quoted as having misgivings about the role of two of the three O'Brien runners in the big race. "They're not going to hang about, those boys from Ireland," she told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"If they take my run, I'm not going to be happy, am I?" she said before adding: "We do know they (Honolulu and Alessandro Volta) are pacemakers."

O'Brien, Murtagh and O'Donoghue were at the centre of a controversy a month ago over the role of the pacemaker Red Rock Canyon in the Juddmonte International won by Duke Of Marmalade at Newmarket.

The British Horseracing Authority ended up banning both jockeys for seven days each while the champion trainer was fined €6,252 at a disciplinary hearing in London.

Attention on the Irish Melbourne Cup team, which also includes Dermot Weld's Profound Beauty, will become even more intense on the run up to Tuesday's €2.5 million feature which will be the 148th running of Australia's most famous sporting event.

This will be the third year O'Brien has had a cup runner and even though Septimus has the heaviest weight to carry in the race for the last 33 years he is impressing in his build-up at Sandown Park racecourse outside Melbourne.

Up to nine international runners may take part including a French runner in Varevees and a strong English contingent that also includes the Luca Cumani pair Mad Rush and Baeur.

"It would mean the world to win it," O'Brien said yesterday.

"A horse is never unbeatable but Septimus is in good form and he was an impressive winner on his last start. It just goes to show the regard this race is held in with the rest of the world. We all want to win it."

On the home front Henry De Bromhead has confirmed the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown in just over a fortnight as a return date for the top-rated hurdler Sizing Europe.

"He looks great, has done nicely over the summer and is moving really well," the Co Waterford trainer said.

"We will see how he goes before deciding on his next race after that but his target again will be the Champion Hurdle."

Sizing Europe started favourite for last March's championship but was virtually pulled up after developing a slight muscle problem in his back.

The outlook is less good for Willie Mullins's high-class chaser Glencove Marina who will miss all of this season as he is still recovering from a tendon problem picked up last January.

"While I would love if these injuries mended in a couple of months they do take a year or more," Mullins said.

"They take a long time but I hope he will be back for next season."