3 minute read

It was wet - very wet - very very wet but fortunately we got to Flemington before the worst of it and just had to splash through a few puddles.

The field for the first race disappeared into the gloom - you could barely see across the track - and caller Mat Hill did a sterling job to distinguish the runners. The victory went to Bella Rosa ridden by a very wet Mark Zahra and in fact all the jockeys were so wet they weighed in up to 2 kgs overweight with their sodden gear.

The track had been rated a soft 6 just before the first. The jockeys all said there was a lot of surface water but no other track problems as this was 1000m straight.

The second race was tougher. Victory went to the wonderful Linda Meech riding the Matt Cumani trained One More Try - a first Cumani winner on Cup Day. The horse's name comes from the owners deciding to ignore their poor record and have one more try (it has nothing to do with Rugby) and it paid off for them.

Race 3 saw the possibility of the rain easing although there were still plenty of clouds hovering menacingly overhead, but none of this deterred the ultra-consistent son of Sea The Stars, Fifty Stars, with young Ben Allen in charge for Darren Weir who only just made it to the course having been stuck in the traffic chaos caused by the rain - traffic lights out etc. etc.

By Race 4 it was starting to clear - one could venture outside without getting soaked - with the track now rated a heavy 8. Another son of Sea The Stars called Shraaoh (pronounced sha-ro-a) now with Chris Waller was having his first Australian start and impressed here, with Kerrin McEvoy getting his first winner of the afternoon.

Race 5 was a wonderful return to the winner's spot for Brett Prebble, recently returned to Victoria after a lengthy stint in Hong Kong. He was so delighted with his win on Legend of Condor trained by Gerald Ryan in the 1000m sprint.

We were chatting with English jockey William Buick who looked remarkably awake after having arrived the day before from Churchill Downs via everywhere, and decided to have a bit of the hard-earned on his runner Pohutakawa (we are told that is Maori for Christmas Tree) in the Godolphin blue for James Cummings and they won. Pohutukawa is by Medaglia d'Oro out of a Reoute's Choice mare and having her second run this prep. Buick took her to the outside in the straight and they swept past the rest of the field for a relatively easy win.

Then it was time for the big one. The sun was out - it was actually quite hot in the sun - the entertainers sang nicely and the 24 horses for the 2018 Melbourne Cup entered the parade ring. There were great debates going on all round - which horses were mudlarks? Would the light weights have an advantage? Which horses paraded best? Would we be exposed to Magic Circle's owner doing a strip (when he threatened to do this at Chester the authorities told him he would be banned for life if he did it)? Quite a number were sweating up but it was humid and most times if this is normal for the horse it is not a matter of concern. The result is now a matter of history - the 4yo gelding son of Teofilo gave Godolphin and Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum their first Melbourne Cup winner. Charlie Appleby the trainer who had identified the horse as a potential Cup horse and Kerrin McEvoy who has had a long connection with Godolphin were the successful trainer and jockey. Marmelo, one of our picks, came second at his second Melbourne Cup with Hughie Bowman the jockey and Hughie Morrison the trainer, and A Prince of Arran produced a remarkable run for third after his tough run to win the Lexus the previous Saturday.

The sad note to the race was the fatal accident suffered by the lovely The Cliffsofmoher. There has been a lot of rubbish spoken and written about this and other fatalities in and around the Cup but horses have delicate bones and if they break one it tends to shatter and the best thing is rapid euthanasier which is what happened here. Two of the so-called accidents occurred after the race with Admire Rakti suffering a heart attack and another horse affected buy the crowd behaviour on the way off the track. Horses are accident-prone and it can happen anywhere at any time, regardless of whether they are race horses or Shetland ponies.