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Connections of Emirates Melbourne Cup topweight Admire Rakti looked on anxiously as he was attacked by a stablemate in a bizarre incident at Werribee quarantine station on Tuesday morning.

The 16-1 second-favourite narrowly avoided injury when Admire Inazuma attempted to savage him after dumping his rider Hiroyuki Komi to the ground.

Admire Inazuma tried to bite and kick his stablemate as Kiyoshi Shikato struggled to control a rearing Admire Rakti.

After parting company with Shikato, Admire Rakti stood quietly as Admire Inazuma lashed out at him. Miraculously he escaped serious injury and both horses were returned to their barn.

The flashpoint came on the same day as a total of 72 possibles were left in the November 4 contest. Among them was the Andrew-Balding trained Ebor runner-up Van Percy, who will race as Lord Van Percy in Australia, and Roger Varian's Group 1-winning mare Ambivalent, who will race as My Ambivalent.

French-trained runner Now We Can, beaten a head by Spiritjim in June's Grand Prix de Chantilly on his only European start this season, was taken out at the race after sustaining an injury in training.

The five-year-old's owner, Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, said: "He did a nice piece of work last week in preparation for going into quarantine, but we later found he had cut into his tendon."

Another Japanese raider Bande heads the betting for the 2m race as a general 12-1 chance with the Tomoyuki Umeda-trained six-year-old Admire Rakti vying for second favouritism.