Aidan O'Brien planning bigger and better team for 2020 assault on Melbourne

O'Brien was denied his first victory in the Melbourne Cup with Il Paradiso suffering interference in the final strides of this year's renewal before finishing a close third but the Ballydoyle maestro is determined to be better than ever next year.

And despite falling agonisingly short yet again in the race that stops a nation and losing Il Paradiso to new Australian owners days later after he was sold, the Ballydoyle maestro still had a successful carnival with two high-profile successes.

Hunting Horn collected €200,000 in prize money when landing the Group Two Moonee Valley Gold Cup in good style last month before Magic Wand finally broke her Group One duck in the Mackinnon Stakes last Saturday at Flemington.

Magic Wand collected €775,000 in the process and while both disappointed in the Melbourne Cup, they more than paid their way with O'Brien laying foundations to have an even bigger impact Down Under next year.

O'Brien's travelling head lad TJ Comerford – the Kilkenny native who looks after the Ballydoyle contingent in Australia each year – outlined their targets for the 2020 carnival with the intention to plunder a wider range of prizes.

"He (Aidan) probably doesn't know yet what horses he'll send out to Australia," Comerford said. "We normally like to target the same races, including the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, but it would be great to look at other races as well.

"The Geelong Cup is a race which has proven to be a good race to qualify horses for the Melbourne Cup. You have more success by bringing horses to Australia for races like the Geelong Cup. There are other races too where you could have success qualifying horses for the Melbourne Cup."

After European dominance in recent seasons with successive triumphs, the Australians bit back in the Melbourne Cup with victory for Danny O'Brien's Vow And Declare under legendary jockey Craig Williams.

British/Irish horses still came home second, third and fourth, however, and 2017 winner Joseph O'Brien looks certain to saddle a host of runners yet again having had one sixth of the field in this year's renewal and strengthened his connection with Hall of Fame owner Lloyd Williams.

Champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins has also made it clear already that the 2020 Melbourne Cup is high on the agenda for emphatic Group Three Queen Elizabeth Stakes victor True Self.

The talented six-year-old mare just missed out on a Melbourne Cup place this time around but looks set to be aimed at a return to Australia for the €5million showpiece next autumn.

"She's probably a little bit of a freak," Mullins said of True Self. "She's done way more than we ever thought she would at this stage of her career and it still looks like there might be more in her.

"I would like to aim her for next year's Melbourne Cup but if she looks like she has that speed and could win a shorter race, we'll have a look at that. She just seems to have hidden talent and she's still maturing."

Dermot Weld is the only Irish trainer outside of O'Brien to claim the illustrious prize – having prevailed with Vintage Crop in 1993 and Media Puzzle in 2002 – and the master of Rosewell House may return to land the hat-trick with Irish St Leger scorer Search For A Song a likely candidate.