Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Champion trainers Aidan O'Brien and Dermot Weld were cleared for a tilt at November's Melbourne Cup horse race after Australian quarantine officials approved their stable facilities in Ireland.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service examined O'Brien's Ballydoyle stables and Weld's Clunemore Lodge complex after toughening measures for visiting gallopers in response to Australia's first outbreak of equine influenza last year.

The approval means O'Brien can continue preparing Melbourne Cup favorite Septimus and stablemate Honolulu for the A$5.6 million ($4.4 million) race on Nov. 4, Racing Victoria Ltd. said. Weld, a two-time Cup-winning trainer, is planning to send mare Profound Beauty to contest the two-mile (3,200-meter) handicap, Australia's richest race, at Flemington Racecourse.

Delta Blues, the 2006 Cup winner, and Japanese stablemate Pop Rock were ruled out of the race because of quarantine protocols that would have forced them to be imported via an approved third country, disrupting their preparations.

Australia quarantined animals, canceled race meetings and banned the movement of horses in 2007 after the virus's detection. A report by former high court judge Ian Callinan in June made 38 recommendations after finding that Australia's quarantine system had ``serious and systemic failures.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney at dbaynes@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 16, 2008 03:28 EDT