GODOLPHIN trainer Charlie Appleby confirmed the Melbourne Cup was next on the agenda for his three-year-old Cross Counter after it ran second in the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes (2400m) at York on Wednesday night.

Appleby trained the quinella, with Old Persian taking the win, but after coming a narrow second the trainer confirmed Cross Counter, $18 in TAB Melbourne Cup betting, would head in to quarantine as part of his team for the spring carnival.

“Cross Counter will start quarantine in four weeks’ time,” Appleby said on Godolphin’s website. “The early batch start quarantine tomorrow (Thursday) and are in there for two weeks, Cross Counter will be part of the second batch.

“I think we have a nice team going down there but it all depends on how they travel, that is the biggest challenge, but if they all turn up there in the nick they are in on this side of the water, they are going to be big players.

“We contemplated missing today with Cross Counter and going earlier to Australia, it is my first time taking a three-year-old to Australia and, with the experience I have had with the older horses, I felt taking a three-year-old down there and giving him a prep run going into the Melbourne Cup might be a bit challenging for him.

“I would rather get the weight off this side of the water and turn up fresh.”

Cross Counter impressed by winning the Group 3 Gordon Stakes (2400m) at Goodwood last month and will join well-credentialed stablemate, last-start Geoffrey Freer Stakes (2700m) winner Hamada, which is $21 in Cup betting, on a flight to Melbourne in October.

Meanwhile, the Appleby-trained trio of Folkswood, Blair House and Jungle Cat entered quarantine at Newmarket on Thursday.

Blair House and Jungle Cat are Group 1 winners at the last Dubai carnival while Folkswood finished third in last year’s Cox Plate. They will arrive in Melbourne on September 8 and Appleby plans to have them all run by the end of the month.

Jungle Cat won the Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) in Dubai in March and hasn’t raced since. He is likely to make his Australian debut in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on September 22.

Folkswood will run in the Group 3 Naturalism Stakes (2000m) on the same day. The winner gains automatic entry for the Caulfield Cup.

Blair House won the Group 1 Jebel Hatta (1800m) in Dubai before he failed in the 1800m World Cup Turf at the same track. Blair House will run in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800m) on September 30 at Caulfield and is being set for the Cox Plate.