Not for the first time, Vauban is at the head of Melbourne Cup betting after all-but confirming a return trip south at York on Friday.

The Willie Mullins-trained gelding returned to the winner’s stall for the first time in more than a year with a narrow-but-impressive win in the Group 2 Lonsdale Cup.

Owner Rich Ricci said the 3269-metre event had been one of two key targets for Vauban this year with the other a trip back to Australia to try and right the wrongs of last year, when he could manage only 14th as $5.50 favourite with bookmakers in Australia for the Melbourne Cup.

“The ticket for Australia is not quite booked, but it has been our intention all season and we said we’d work back from the Melbourne Cup,” Ricci said.

“We learned a lot from Australia last year, We did things differently than in the past, we’d always gone in the second shipment and run later than he did.

“I just said to the team, ‘let’s start with Melbourne, let him tell us he’s not able to go and work back from that’.

“His two targets were the Gold Cup and today and I guess he’ll go in the second shipment again.”

Vauban is as short as $11 in some Melbourne Cup markets, sharing the top line of betting with this year’s Sydney Cup winner Circle Of Fire.

After cruising into the race midway down the straight, Vauban quickly put three lengths on his rivals and although he tired late he lasted to score by a short-head from Al Nayyir with Gregory three lengths away third.

The big question now is what weight Racing Victoria handicapper David Hegan will assign Vauban in the Melbourne Cup, which will be run at Flemington on November 5.

He carried 55kg last year, when his biggest success had been the Group 3 Ballyroan Stakes (2414m).

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