Veteran stayer Master O’Reilly has begun a campaign aimed at a fourth consecutive Emirates Melbourne Cup appearance at Flemington in November.

The rising eight-year-old, who's finished fourth in the past two cups after a debut eighth in 2007, has begun pre-training for the Danny O'Brien stable in the build up to the first Tuesday in November.

The 2007 Caulfield Cup winner, who made a cameo appearance during this year's Melbourne Festival of Racing, has embarked on a long and steady campaign which will be light on appearances compared to previous years.

“He's begun pre-training on the water walker at Matthew Feiss' property at Woodstock to start building up his fitness,” assistant trainer Gerard Tesoriero explained.

“There's a bit of management involved with him so we like to build up us much fitness without putting him under saddle.

“He'll spend about four weeks on the water walker before he heads to either our Barwon Heads property or here to Flemington to continue building his fitness base.

“Our goal is certainly another Melbourne Cup start, but he won't be seen until later in the spring because we'll manage his workload.

“The horse did a fair bit of work on a high speed treadmill here at Flemington last year and we'll be training him very similar this year.”

Master O'Reilly has raced exclusively in Group or Listed company at his past 25 appearances and amassed just shy of $3 million in stake earnings throughout a stellar 40 start career.

In other news from the O'Brien stable, boom colt Star Witness is back in work and being prepared for the Group 1 The Age Caulfield Guineas (1600m) in October.

The Blue Diamond Stakes winner is being pre-trained at Barwon Heads and is likely to return to racing in the Listed $100,000 Vain Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on 14 August.

Last season's Caulfield Cup placegetter Vigor is also in pre-training ahead of a return to racing in mid to late August. He'll be targeted at the big Cups double again this year.