And Then There Were 22

The Melbourne Cup field, set to run at 3pm today, November 4, local time, has been reduced to 22 horses after $81 chance Yellowstone was scratched on Monday night, the day before the big race, due to failure to recover from a hip injury.

Yellowstone's scratching followed that of $71 chance Zarita on Monday morning, local time.

There had been doubts about erstwhile top favorite Septimus but the horse's connections have been reported as having confirmed the top-weight Irish stayer and this year's Irish St Leger winner, relegated to second favorite by Mad Rush, would certainly be in the running in the $5.5-million 3200m race.

• Melbourne Cup 2008