Tuesday, 1st November, 2011 – MELBOURNE CUP DAY

Not a very good sleep, and your writer was back up at the radio station by 6.30am –  no need to be there, as I had no commitment to the station, just a commitment to myself, and my annual little visit for an hour at this time each year, to present my little Melbourne Cup Preview.

Which I did  – went through the whole program of ten races, giving listeners my selections for what they are worth, of the nine non-Cup races, and then after a bit of music, we looked at the Cup field itself, which is listed below.  Also, I was lucky enough to have recordings of the closing stages of the first eleven Melbourne Cups trained by Bart Cummings, starting with Light Fingers in 1965, plus one or two others –  Rising Sun in 1954, and my favourite Cup Winner, Rain Lover, the winner in 1968 and 1969.

Melbourne Cup Field 2011

1. Americain  –  G Mosse [A De Royer-Dupre]
2. Jukebox Jury – N Callan  [Mark Johnston]
3. Dunaden –   L.Lemaire  [Mikel Delzangles]
4. Drunken Sailor – D Dunn [LM Cumani]
5. Glass Harmonium – Ms L Cropp [MD Moroney]
6. Manighar – D Oliver [LM Cumani]
7. Unusual Suspect – B Rawiller [MC Kent]
8. Fox Hunt – S De Sousa [Mark Johnston]
9. Lucas Cranach – C Brown [Anthony Freedman]
10. Mourayan – J Bowman [Robert Hickmott] [SCRATCHED]
11. Precedence – D Beadman [JB Cummings]
12. Red Cadeaux – M Rodd [Ed Dunlop]
13. Hawk Island – G Schofield [CJ Waller]
14. Illo – J Cassidy [JB Cummings]
15. Lost In The Moment – W Buick [Saeed Bin Suroor]
16. Modun – K McEvoy [Saeed Bin Suroor]
17. At First Sight – S King [Robert Hickmott]
18. Moyenne Corniche – B Prebble [Brian Elison]
19. Saptapadi – C Symons [Brian Elison]
20. Shamrocker – L Nolen [DT O’Brien]
21. The Verminator – C Newitt [CJ Waller]
22. Tullamore – C Munce [Ms Gai Waterhouse]
23. Niwot – D Yendall [MW & J Hawkes
24. Older Than Time – T Clark [Ms Gai Waterhouse].

Disappointment of the day came for popular jockey Craig Williams, who was to have ridden international visitor, Dunaden – in fact he had a number of rides on Cup day, but yesterday lost an appeal against a suspension for careless riding at a country race meeting a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, before we proceed any further, here are my tips for the 2011 Melbourne Cup:

• 1^st: NO. 9 – Lucas Cranach
• 2^nd: No. 14 – Illo
• 3^rd: No. 7 – Unusual Suspect
• 4^th: No. 17 – At First Sight.

I would like to see JB [Bart] Cummings win his 13^th Melbourne Cup as a trainer – he has two chances in today’s race –  one of my choices, Illo, and Precedence. We shall return later in the day with an outcome – Melbourne Cup, worth $A6 million, and run over 3,200 metres, at 3pm Eastern Australian Summer time. Some of the family are coming over to watch the race with me, later today, as is our annual practice.

10am: a scratching in the Cup – No. 10 Mourayan

Well here we are back, it’s early evening, and it all feels like a bit of an anti-climax with the Cup over for another year, monies won and lost [all the latter for me], a new hero in the records, and the closest finish in the history of the Cup. For your writer, it was a pleasant afternoon – for the first time for many years, the whole of the family came and joined me at home, to watch this year’s Melbourne Cup, and a number of the other races on the program –  all four ‘kids’ [I’d not expected the boys but both apparently decided family was the preferred option this year], together with their Mum, Shirley, her mother, and Jodie’s boyfriend, Ash. As usual, Mrs Seipolt brought over a pile of food [I’d being told there was no need to do anything in that respect], and during the course of races, we conducted the usual of mini family sweeps on both the Cup, and some of the other races associated with the day. And as usual, while I provided the majority of the ‘funds’ for that, nothing came back to me in return[none of my horse ‘came in’] while Shirley seemed to take off the major share of winnings, yet once again!!!  But it was a fun afternoon, and I enjoyed having everyone together for a change. 

And the race result!  Well ‘my’ predictions of this morning, didn’t really come about, not surprisingly  – the Melbourne Cup with a big field of 23 well credentialed horses is never an easy race in which to pick a winner [is any race??].  Another French horse, with French connections won the 151st running of the Melbourne Cup in a photo finish from Red Cadeaux, with Lucas Cranach third in another photo from favourite Americain [last year’s overseas winner].   Champion Australian jockey Craig Williams has had his heart broken after Dunaden, the horse he was set to ride, was awarded the race in the closest finish in Cup history.   Williams was suspended the week before for careless riding and failed in his bid for a stay of proceedings pending an appeal. Replacement jockey Christophe Lemaire timed his run perfectly to reach the post almost simultaneously with Red Cadeaux. Might you, this is not to say that Dunaden would have won if Williams had been riding, but that is the general perception anyway. It certainly was an exciting finish with a number of fast finishing chances, and the decision on the photo  took an eternity while it  was heavily scrutinised. The crowd, which had roared as a wall of runners all had their chances in the closing stages, held their breaths as the results board remained blank. The photo, shown on the big screen, had many predicting the first dead-heat in Cup history, but the judges were finally able to separate the two horses by the barest of margins.  American had retained favouritism for the race despite the fact Dunaden had beaten him in Europe. Dunaden had a greater weight advantage this time, allowing the French stayer to repeat the result. British trained Red Cadeaux was having his first start in Australia and very nearly won for trainer Ed Dunlop at his first attempt. German horse Lucas Cranach completed the European trifecta for Lee and Anthony Freedman, and as indicated earlier in the day, had being my selection to win the race.

Meanwhile, the sky over Flemington, and Melbourne in general,  threatened all day, but the rain failed to fall and the track was upgraded to a good three. Concern rippled through the camps of the European raiders, who almost every year campaign to have the track softened up to suit their horses. I notice that the rider of American commented after the race on the hardness of the track. Anyway, here is the finishing order of this year’s competing horses in the Melbourne Cup.  Those horses highlighted were the four I had in my top four placings!!!  I didn’t lose too much money – not a big better, but then, I didn’t win anything either.

2011 Melbourne Cup Results and Finishing Order

And while all of this was going on,  the Reserve Bank of Australia which always meets on the 1^st Tuesday of the month [it was not a holiday in Canberra], decided in their wisdom to reduce interest rates [though I’m sure they were not actually making that decision whilst the Cup was in progress!].  We might make a brief reference to that decision, and it’s potential outcomes, tomorrow.