Twilight Payment captures Melbourne Cup as McNeil sparkles
Second O’Brien father-son quinella marred by fatal injury to Derby winner as McEvoy cops record whip fine
Joseph O’Brien led home his father Aidan in the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) for the second time in four years yesterday as Twilight Payment (Teofilo) held off Tiger Moth (Galileo) under a sensational Jye McNeil ride, giving owner Lloyd Williams a historic seventh success in the race that stops the nation at Flemington.
But the event was marred by a fatal fetlock injury to last year’s Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Anthony Van Dyck (Galileo), the Cup’s fifth racing-related injury resulting in death since 2013, while Kerrin McEvoy, aboard runner-up Tiger Moth, received an Australian record whip fine of $50,000 and a 13-meeting suspension as Racing Victoria stewards made good on their threat to heavily penalise overuse of the crop.
The news overshadowed what will be remembered as one of the toughest Melbourne Cup wins the contest has seen in its 160-year history, with McNeil’s ride sure to go down in the annals of history as an all-time great performance.
Sent off at 25-1 in one of the strongest fields assembled for the $8 million feature, Twilight Payment (8 g Teofilo – Dream On Buddy by Oasis Dream) became the first horse to lead past the post on both laps since Might And Power (Zabeel) in 1997, while it had not been achieved before that since Lord Fury (Edwardsii) held on to score in 1961.
“I’m overwhelmed with emotion at the moment, it’s a miracle,” McNeil said before returning to an empty grandstand, the absence of the usual acclamation from 100,000-odd spectators trackside an eerie reminder of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s been a lifelong dream to get this moment and to get this winner is very surreal. I’m not worried about the (empty) grandstand at all.”
However, those jockeys who did not have a ride in the Cup made sure to give him a reception to remember, cheering him in as he walked through the famous Flemington archway: “There’s a few mates down by ramp and a few in the mounting yard, and that’s what makes the moment. That’s what it’s all about.”
Plaudits for McNeil at first Cup ride
Jumping from gate 12 in the field of 23, McNeil was positive on Twilight Payment, ensuring that he led as they joined up with the course proper the first time around.
Past the post on the first occasion – as racecaller Matt Hill implored the millions of viewers and listeners around the country to “Give them a cheer, Australia!” – the order was the same as it would be after another lap was completed: Twilight Payment led Tiger Moth by a length at a solid tempo.
Unlike last year’s race which Twilight Payment led at a slow, even farcical, pace, McNeil produced a masterclass in riding a free-bowling stayer, a shrewd effort at odds with his inexperience as a Melbourne Cup rookie.
“That’s exactly what Joseph wanted, to be at the head of the field and really get them chasing because what he lacked in class he makes up for in his staying ability,” McNeil said. “I had to be positive as he was a little bit slow into gear. He jumped with them but he was a touch slow to really find his rhythm.
“I encouraged him to go forward and that was the plan and then he found just a lovely tempo. He got into a fantastic rhythm, breathing really well and then it was a matter of amping the tempo up at the right stage.”
The 25-year-old had the field stretched out over 25 lengths by the time the pack had reached the 2000-metre mark and began the trek alongside the Maribyrnong River. While it appeared a strongly-run race to the eye, with Twilight Payment putting four lengths on Tiger Moth by the 1700 metres, it was in fact McNeil’s measured sectionals from the 2000 metres to the 1200 metres that set up his victory.
By the time the field had reached halfway, Finche (Frankel) had moved up to second at the hindquarters of the leader, with Kerrin McEvoy adopting a patient approach on Tiger Moth.
This created one of the visual spectacles of the 2020 Cup. From Chicquita Lodge to the 400 metres, McNeil slowly increased the tempo on Twilight Payment, with 50 lengths from first to last at the 800 metres. At that point, with Finche two lengths in arrears, the Irish gelding had eight lengths to spare over Tiger Moth and Etah James (Raise The Flag), racing third and fourth.
Visually, logic – both scientific and anecdotal – dictated that the leader had to come back to the field. Horses don’t win Melbourne Cups in that manner. Clearly, given the manner in which McNeil had managed to string out the field, there was no way he could sustain that sort of performance. He was a sitting shot.
Except, unlike 12 months ago, there were only a handful of chances turning for home. Unlike that sit and sprint race shape of the 2019 Cup, it was visually apparent that only a few contenders could land one of world racing’s greatest prizes.
Tiger Moth continued to track up strongly behind the speed, The Chosen One (Savabeel) was travelling like a bull and Jamie Kah, on Prince Of Arran (Shirocco), looked poised to pounce as the popular British gelding chased a fairytale first win.
For horses further back than midfield, though, it would have taken a physics-defying performance to defeat the leader; fancies like Sir Dragonet (Camelot) and Verry Elleegant (Zed), who flashed home from well back, would have had to break 11 seconds for one of their final three 200-metre splits to take the spoils, and that would have come on the back of a stamina-sapping run in which they had already spent plenty of energy just to get within striking distance.
In the end, though, it was Twilight Payment who was – quite simply – the superior stayer. Having put three lengths on Finche at the 400 metres, it was a case of which horses would emerge from that handily-placed bunch to take him on.
However, passing the 300 metres and then the 200 metres, the chasers had hardly made the inroads necessary to catch the leader. Tiger Moth was surging, along with The Chosen One, but passing the clock tower they appeared the only two potential dangers – and an excitable McNeil realised that his lifelong dream was in sight.
“I was confident,” he said. “I had to think not to use the whip too many times. Also I was trying to use my voice to encourage him as much as possible. I’m peaking on my run 200 metres out. I’m using all of my might, it was a matter of hanging on and he was very tough. It was very surreal crossing the line.”
Tiger Moth surged into second but could not get closer than a long neck under three-time Cup winner Kerrin McEvoy, while the Charlie Fellowes-trained Prince Of Arran joined Red Cadeaux (Cadeaux Genereux), Sarcherie (Archery) and Shadow King (Comedy King) as a three-time Melbourne Cup placegetter without taking home the gold.
“You can’t be gutted running third in the Melbourne Cup. I’m not gutted at all,” Fellowes said. “I’m incredibly proud of him. I felt we got our run stopped at a really bad point in the race and the way he was running home at the end, it wouldn’t have had to be too much further and we would have given Twilight Payment something to think about.
“He was behind a wall of horses at the wrong time and got out a bit too late. He flew. He’s run a massive race again. He is an incredible horse.”
The Chosen One peaked on his run late to finish fourth, just ahead of The Bart Cummings (Gr 3, 2500m) winner Persan (Pierro). Surprise Baby (Shocking), who was heavily backed into $6 favourite late, weakened to finish 13th, almost nine lengths from the winner.
“His performance was well below par for him and it will be interesting to see how he comes through the run physically,” rider Craig Williams said of Surprise Baby. “He looked like he was a little bit stressed when he was unsaddled. It’ll be really interesting to see how he pulls up.”
The final time of 3:17.34 was the fastest Cup since Media Puzzle (Theatrical) stopped the clock in 3:16.97 in 2002 and was barely a second outside Kingston Rule’s (Secretariat) race record of 3:16.30.
A number of European stayers had attempted to win the Cup in a similar manner to Twilight Payment, including greats like Persian Punch (Persian Heights) and Yeats (Sadler’s Wells), while the 2008 Cup is remembered for the three Ballydoyle horses – Honolulu (Montjeu), Alessandro Volta (Montjeu) and Septimus (Sadler’s Wells) – going out at a breakneck tempo.
However, few jockeys have been able to produce as measured a front-running ride as McNeil, with the two-time Group 1 winner capping off a life-changing spring with victory in Australia’s greatest race.
He became a father for the first time after his partner, fellow jockey Jess Payne, gave birth to son Oakley on the horses’ birthday, August 1. Now, McNeil will forever be identified by that most illustrious of monikers, “Melbourne Cup winner”.
“Jess and Oakley will be watching from home today. Unfortunately they couldn’t be here. I’m sure that they along with a lot of other people will be very proud,” he said. “I’m sure Jess will be very emotional. If Oakley follows in my footsteps, I can show him this and say, work hard and you can achieve your goals – this has been one of mine since day one.”
Two for O’Brien as sons defeat fathers
As a southern hemisphere eight-year-old, Twilight Payment is just the third of that age bracket to win the Cup, joining Catalogue (Lord Quex) in 1938 and Toryboy (Wollaton) all the way back in 1865.
While the horse may be a veteran, though, his trainer remains fresh-faced, even as he watched the Cup in the early hours of yesterday morning from Tipperary. O’Brien, at 27, became the 19th trainer to land multiple Melbourne Cups and is the youngest to achieve the feat since 30-year-old Etienne de Mestre returned to Flemington for the second Cup with inaugural winner Archer (William Tell).
For perspective, Bart Cummings was 39 when he saddled up the second of his 12 winners, while Lee Freedman was 36.
“It is incredibly special, although obviously it’s quite different and not what we would have liked – we would have loved to have been there,” O’Brien said. “There was a time when we weren’t sure whether we were going to be able to have runners in the race this year, so it is very special that we were able to compete in the race. All credit and a huge thanks to all the people behind the scenes making that happen and make it possible.
“We’re very lucky to take part in those races with the horses and support of the owners – Lloyd and Nick. Jye gave the horse the most wonderful ride.”
Of course, like in 2017 when the younger O’Brien’s Rekindling (High Chaparral) beat his father’s Johannes Vermeer (Galileo), it is difficult to examine the race without mentioning the family rivalry that has developed in recent years, even with the pair watching from afar due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When the horses are around the track they’re all doing their best and dad is delighted for me to have a winner as I’m delighted for him when he wins a race,” he said. “It’s very special to be able to compete in these bigger races. This year in particular.
“Mark Power, Sean Corbey and my team of lads that have been down in Melbourne for the last number of weeks have done an incredible job. Not only him but all the horses there and having them in fantastic condition. All credit has to go to them.”
There was a fitting parallel between the trainers and their horses with Godolphin stallion Teofilo recording his second Melbourne Cup winner after Cross Counter’s 2018 success.
Teofilo’s sire Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) finished second with Tiger Moth and, like Aidan O’Brien, the world’s leading stallion remains without a Cup hero to his name; Tiger Moth joined Purple Moon, Mahler, Johannes Vermeer and Il Paradiso as a Galileo Cup placegetter.
Twilight Payment was bred by champion Irish trainer Jim Bolger, who also bred and trained Teofilo. Originally raced by Godolphin, he had 19 starts in the royal blue, winning the Her Majesty’s Plate (Listed, 1m 6f) at Belfast’s Down Royal racecourse but otherwise building a reputation as something of a non-winner.
He was sold by Sheikh Mohammed’s operation at the Goffs Horses In Training Sale in 2018, the day after Cross Counter won a first Melbourne Cup for the boys in blue. Purchased for €200,000 (approx. AUD$329,000) by Bolger’s wife Jackie, he won the Saval Beg Stakes (Listed, 1m 6f) and the Curragh Cup (Gr 2, 1m 6f) last year to attract the attention of Lloyd Williams.
Transferred from Bolger to O’Brien, he has somehow managed to find his best as a seven-year-old after travelling to Melbourne and Riyadh over the European winter.
This year, he has won the Vintage Crop Stakes (Gr 3, 1m 6f) and gone back-to-back in the Curragh Cup while, in hindsight, his Irish St Leger (Gr 1, 1m 6f) third to two-time winner Search For A Song (Galileo) deserved more respect.
Twilight Payment is the second foal out of Dream On Buddy (Oasis Dream), who has since produced Group 2 placegetter Bandiuc Eile (New Approach). His two-year-old half-sister Our New Buddy (New Approach) has finished fifth in a pair of maidens at Newbury and Nottingham, while Dream On Buddy has a yearling colt by Dawn Approach (New Approach).
Further back, it is the family of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m)-winning mother and son Detroit (Riverman) and Carnegie (Sadler’s Wells), while the Melbourne Cup’s most prolific stallion of the past three decades, Zabeel (Sir Tristram), also features.
Once considered camera-shy, yesterday’s win took his record to eight wins from 31 starts with earnings of $5,468,340.
Seven in four decades for Williams
Melbourne Cup day dawned on a sour note for Lloyd Williams as his Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m) winner King Of Leogrance (Camelot) was withdrawn on vets’ advice, having shown signs of lameness.
That left the octogenarian with two runners as he attempted to add a seventh three-handled loving cup to his mantle, having first tasted victory with Just A Dash (Whiskey Road) in 1981.
Last year’s second past the post Master Of Reality (Frankel) was more fancied by the market, despite the fact that Twilight Payment had defeated him twice in Ireland this year.
However, it was Twilight Payment who joined Just A Dash, What A Nuisance (St Puckle), Efficient (Zabeel), Green Moon (Montjeu), Almandin (Monsun) and Rekindling, with all bar Just A Dash carrying the Williams navy and blue in victory.
Williams watched the race from his Mornington Peninsula home, with son Nick – also an owner – tuning in from the Prince Of Wales Hotel in St Kilda.
“It’s a pity we couldn’t all be on course today,” said the younger Williams. “The VRC have done a great job in trying to make the experience as good as they can. It’s been a challenging year for everyone around the world and we’ve just got to do the best of it.
“We’re fortunate we’re here at Melbourne’s best pub, the Prince Of Wales here in St Kilda and I reckon we’ll give it a fair hammering tonight.”
Nick Williams was full of praise for his father, for McNeil and for both Joseph and Aidan O’Brien after Twilight Payment’s success.
“Dad said to me about two or three months ago when there were doubts about Sydney jockeys, he said: ‘I’ve booked Jye McNeil for Twilight Payment. He’s the best young jockey in this country.’ Yet again, as so often happens Dad’s view gets proved right,” he said.
“He’s a genius and there’s absolutely no doubt the right one won the race. Jye rode the horse exactly how Joseph had been telling him over the last two or three nights to ride him in their long conversations.
“We were a bit worried about him doing that because if you don’t win when you ride a horse like that, people aren’t exactly praising you for it. You’ve got to get it right in that situation. It wasn’t a pretty ride, but it was a very effective ride. From the great European jockeys, none of them could ride it any better than he did today. He had the horse under him to do the job.
“Joseph is an amazing young man. People often say he’s an inexperienced trainer and things like that, but he’s not really. He’s grown up in Ballydoyle with Aidan, he’s been around training horses since he could walk. As a jockey he won 33, I think, Group 1 races, a bunch of Classics before the weight got the better of him at 23 and then took up training.
“He’s got the world at his feet. If he was in a yearling sale he’d top the sale with his pedigree. They’re a wonderful family. They just live and breathe horse racing.
“I just got off the phone with Aidan, he called me. I would love to see Aidan win it, I would love to see the Magniers and the Tabors win it as they put so much into the game. I would prefer they didn’t run second to us, to be honest, because I feel a bit guilty given how much they put into our great industry.”
Tributes flow for Anthony Van Dyck
Much of the post-race focus was on Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck, the second of Aidan O’Brien’s two runners.
Under pressure from Hugh Bowman approaching the 800 metres, the top-weight stumbled upon straightening and was pulled up in dramatic fashion, quite clearly in a world of trouble.
Bowman dismounted and Anthony Van Dyck was loaded onto a horse ambulance, but it was announced by Racing Victoria soon afterwards that the Aidan O’Brien-trained runner had been humanely euthanised.
“He was a very kind, sound, lovely-natured horse – incredibly tough and genuine,” said O’Brien.
“It was very sad to see that happen, it was just very unfortunate. He was a good Derby winner who we’ll have fond memories of.”
Even Nick Williams, representing the owners of Twilight Payment, admitted that his first thought was for the Coolmore operation.
“I want to send out all my sympathies to Coolmore. They put in a lot of money into our sport. They’re great sportsmen,” he said. “They go to every dance, take their best horses everywhere in the world. They’ve had this bad luck with such a great horse. I just feel terrible for them.
“To the Magniers, the Smiths, Tabor families, and of course the O’Briens, I feel terrible for you. It’s a shocking thing to happen at any time.”
McEvoy’s record fine for whip violation
Tiger Moth’s rider Kerrin McEvoy was given a 13-meeting suspension and fined a record $50,000 – 91 per cent of his $55,000 share of runner-up prize-money – for violating whip rules in the straight.
McEvoy wielded the whip 13 times before the 100 metres, eight more than the five allowed under the rules, while he engaged the pursuer 21 times overall.
Appearing before stewards, McEvoy pled guilty, with his financial penalty the biggest recorded in Australia. He will also miss the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival on Saturday.
Stewards also revealed that Oceanex (Ocean Park) and Persan pulled up with heat stress, while Mark Zahra aboard Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Verry Elleegant (Zed) was severely reprimanded for shifting out and checking Steel Prince (Nathaniel).
Tabcorp reported that wagering on the Melbourne Cup in Victoria was down almost 18 per cent on last year to $28 million, while wagering across the other states through the TAB was steady at $72 million.
However, online bookmakers reported major increases in turnover across the board.