TRAINER BRIAN ELLISON AND ONESMOOTHOPERATOR CHASING BACK-TO-BACK WINS IN THE GEELONG CUP

By Graham Potter | Monday, October 20, 2025

Get ready for the first ‘win and you are in’ edition of the Geelong Cup … where the winner of Wednesday’s $500 000 Group 3 contest will gain direct entry into the $10 Melbourne Cup at Flemington on that famous first Tuesday in November.

The Geelong Cup received twenty-four nominations but that has been whittled down to a final field of ten runners, representing ten different trainers … including Brian Ellison who, once again, brings the United States-bred Onesmoothoperator all the way from his Spring Cottage Stables in Malton, North Yorkshire, to attempt to make it back-to-back wins in the Geelong Cup with the eight-year-old son of Dialled who Criag Williams partnered to victory last year.

Williams will again be in the saddle on Wednesday.

After the second acceptances phase for the 2025 Melbourne Cup was finalised, Onesmoothoperator jumped a couple of places to 26 in the current order of entry for a field which will only have 24 runners.

With possible further withdrawals to come, that might be a handy enough position to earn a place in the final Melbourne Cup field, but with that question mark still out there, the Geelong Cup remains an important assignment for the Ellison team, be is as a way to secure a Melbourne Cup run … or, as an important build-up run anyway should the Melbourne Cup pieces fall into place.

Last year, Onesmoothoperator came into the Geelong Cup after a one-and-a-half month break following his fourth-place finish in the Group 3 September Stakes over 2414m at Kempton Park in Britain. Before that he finished unplaced at the Ebor Festival at York in the Ebor over 2816m.

This year, Onesmoothoperator arrives with two months between runs after finishing unplaced in the same Ebor contest as he did the year … effectively making him one run less this time in.

Ellison is a quality trainer who, as he showed last year, clearly has the expertise required to set Onesmoothoperator for the task at hand. He has, after-all, saddled runners in the Melbourne Cup, the Grand National, the Cheltemham Festival and Royal Ascot, amongst others … and there is a very small club membership of those who have done that.

Seven runners in the ten-strong Geelong Cup field are listed in the current Melbourne Cup Order Of Entry.

They are Changingoftheguard (22), Onesmoothoperator (26), Grand Pierro (36), Whisky On The Hill (37), Torranzino (41), Gilded Water (42) and Fernao (43).

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