Between now and Melbourne Cup day is always a long time!
Following the Caulfield Cup on Saturday, True Self has come out of it really well and she’ll now go straight to the Melbourne Cup.
We’ve had a chance to have a good look at the race and the horses around her, and it seemed that towards the end of the meeting the rail was certainly not the place to be, especially between the 500 metres and the 200 metres. Most of the horses who were there compounded.
We saw the likes of Dashing Willoughby weaken out of the race, and even some of the horses going for the Cox Plate, Master Of Wine and Buckhurst, went backwards and all were down on the rail.
So I would say there was a distinct bias towards the horses who were at least four out off the fence. That was a result of a fair bit of rain we had the previous night and the track simply breaking up from the traffic that had been on it throughout the day.
I think a number of good horses ran well in the Caulfield Cup. Verry Elleegant and Anthony Van Dyck both showed they were the deserving favoured horses and justified being Group 1 horses in a handicap, which is always hard to do.
The popular horse in Australia, and we’ve almost adopted him, Prince Of Arran ran a super race. You couldn’t ask for a better pipe opener for the Melbourne Cup.
Finche, who has always been near to do it in Australian racing since arriving from France, ran another super race.
Those four horses were clearly the ones to take from the race. The Chosen One ran a good race into third but it’s hard to see him in a Melbourne Cup in the same light as the other four.
Verry Elleegant has only been penalised half a kilogram and I think she’s done well. History tells you that you only get a penalty because you deserve it and Doriemus got a three kilogram penalty after the Caulfield Cup in 1995 before going on to win the Melbourne Cup.
When we won the Melbourne Cup with Doriemus, it was a huge milestone, as every blue-blooded Australian has a love affair with the Melbourne Cup once they have the remotest interest in horses.
We purchased the horse from New Zealand as a three-year-old, he’d had two starts and he was a relatively backward wishy-washy looking chestnut.
When he first got to Australia we immediately took him to Brisbane. He looked very light, but he was able to win his first race in Brisbane very convincingly and take a couple of seconds off the class record.
To his great credit, Lee Freedman said ‘I think we’ve got something very special and if we’re patient I think we can get this horse to the highest level in a couple of years’ time’.
He had two very quiet years leading into the Melbourne Cup as a five-year-old, and he won the Caulfield Cup before winning in Flemington. It was a great piece of planning by Lee and on the day we had a wet track in Caulfield and an even wetter track in Flemington, which Doriemus loved.
Two years later, Doriemus lost the Melbourne Cup in a photo to Might And Power, but it didn’t feel nearly as bad as Bauer losing in 2008, because Bauer went down by a nostril and we thought we had won that.
I didn’t think Doriemus had won on the day, despite Greg Hall going up in the saddle. I walked down while the photo was being processed with no expectations.
I still feel to this day that Might And Power was such a fantastic racehorse and had he lost that Melbourne Cup it almost would have been a bit of a travesty to racing because he fought off three or four opponents in the straight. As far as earning a Melbourne Cup goes, Might And Power certainly earned it.
Onto this week and we have got a very busy time ahead of us. San Huberto will run in the Geelong Cup tomorrow with Damien Oliver onboard.
It’s a bit short of the ideal distance for a two mile horse, but he’s very well and Matt Cumani is very happy with him, so he’ll run a good race. His major plan is the Melbourne Cup and he should get a run.
In the second-level races at Moonee Valley on Saturday we’ve got Mr Satchmo running in the Group 2 Crystal Mile and we may have Romancer in that as well.
We also have three horses in the upcoming Lexus Stakes (Hotham Handicap) who will try and win their way into the Melbourne Cup. Future Score, who won the Cranbourne Cup last week, Attorney, who is coming down from Sydney, and Azzuro, who ran third in the Lexus last year.
We could be well represented, but as we know between now and Melbourne Cup day is always a long time!
Weekend runners
Selino – Moonee Valley Cup – He was trained by James Fanshawe and ran second in the Doncaster Cup. He has done everything we’ve wanted since he’s been in quarantine, Chris Waller has been taking care of him and he’s now in their Flemington stable. He’s a lovely horse and, while we haven’t really set high targets for him this preparation, he’ll make his presence felt in a race like this. He won’t be running in the Melbourne Cup this year, but it’s a great introductory race for him in Australia.
Gallic Chieftain – Moonee Valley Cup – He’s been racing very well without luck and he’s not far off getting a run in the Melbourne Cup, so if he was to run a good race and get a kilogram penalty, he could well go on to the Melbourne Cup.