Preparations for the Melbourne spring carnival step up a gear at on Friday with the leading UK contenders Mount Athos, Brown Panther and Glen's Diamond lining up for the Artemis Goodwood Cup.

Trainer Luca Cumani may this year rely on only Mount Athos in an attempt to break his Melbourne Cup drought.

The G2 Goodwood Cup represents the first time Dr Marwan Koukash's galloper has stepped up to 3200m since his fifth in the 2012 Melbourne Cup at Flemington last November.

An impressive winner when resuming at Chester, Mount Athos then finished fifth at Royal Ascot in the Hardwicke Stakes (2400m).

Trainer Tom Dascombe and owner and retired superstar footballer Michael Owen touted the Melbourne Cup for Brown Panther last month.

While the five-year-old is not the most consistent peformer, he produced a pleasing performance on his seasonal return by winning a 2400m Listed race at Pontefract in Yorkshire.

The Clayton family and trainer Richard Fahey mentioned Australia after the gutsy victory of Glen's Diamond in the Yorkshire Cup (2800m) at York but the gelding could not back up over the same trip in the Curragh Cup when hammered by Aidan O'Brien's Ernest Hemingway.

"I've had Melbourne in the back of my mind, but he'll need to bounce back from the Curragh," said Fahey.

"He has two ways of running, unfortunately. We saw the good Glen's Diamond at York, and the bad one at the Curragh."

A number of Europe's premier stayers are among the large Goodwood Cup field of 14 , including last year's winner Saddler's Rock.

The John Oxx representative was eighth in the Ascot Gold Cup and will need to turn around that form with Colour Vision (fourth) and Altano (fifth).

"The race was run to suit him in the Gold Cup but he ran a bit flat," said Oxx.

"He has had a good break so hopefully he can get back to his best at a track he likes."

Caucus was second to Estimate on his first start of the year at Ascot before Sir Michael Stoute's filly progressed to Gold Cup glory. He went on to gain his own victory in the Coral Marathon (3200m) at Sandown.

Along with last year's Gold Cup winner Colour Vision, Godolphin and Saeed Bin Suroor will line up last year's Melbourne Cup 12th Cavalryman, who has since performed respectably in several outings since returning from the Dubai Carnival.

Godolphin's third runner is Ahzeemah, beaten at far more favourable weights by Cavalryman at Meydan but well ahead of him at level handicaps on his British return in the Princess Of Wales's Stakes (2400m) at Newmarket.

Marcus Tregoning has welcomed the rain falling at Goodwood for his old stager Askar Tau, last year's runner-up.

"It's going to be a right slog out there, but my horse seems to prefer softer ground as he gets older," he said.

The Goodwood Cup dates back to the early 1800s, and since the internationalisation of the Melbourne Cup, a handful of the best known northern hemisphere stayers have competed in both, such as Double Trigger, Yeats and Persian Punch.