Northerly, the Cox Plate winner, suffered a shock defeat after going down to the apprentice-ridden Mr Trickster in the Victoria Gold Cup at Caulfield on Saturday.

Frankie Dettori rode his Melbourne Cup mount Pugin for the first time in trackwork at Melbourne’s Sandown track and declared him on target to win the big race on Tuesday week.

Champion Australian racehorse Northerly, the punter’s favourite, added the Caulfield Cup to his cache of Group One successes at the Melbourne track today as Godolphin’s Beekeeper ran a great Melbourne Cup trial.