Horse Efficient and jockey Michael Rodd win the 2007 Melbourne Cup- AAP Image/Julian Smith
Every year the talk surrounding the Melbourne Cup field seems to centre around the overseas horses that travel to Australia in a bid to steal our Cup. And every year, these same horses disappoint.
Remember the hype surrounding the Irish horses Mad Rush, Septimus, and Profound Beauty last year? Purple Moon and Mahler in 2007? Yeats in 2006? Mamool in 2003? Vinnie Roe in 2002?
The list goes on.
With the exception of the Japanese horse, Delta Blues, and the Irish horse, Media Puzzle, winning the Cup in 2006 and 2002 respectively, these high-profile overseas horses fail to match it with the “big guns” of Australian racing.
So it’s a relief to see that this year not a single international horse in the Cup is rated under a twenty-to-one chance. Are we finally starting to realise that these horses keep letting us down, year-in and year-out?
History has proven that anything can happen in the race that stops the nation, so perhaps the lack of favouritism will work to the advantage of these overseas horses. They may excel now that the pressure has been taken away from them and the focus of the media is on the local horses such as Viewed, Shocking and Alcopop.
Or maybe the international trainers have learnt that greater success has come to those who have had a lead-up run in Australia prior to the Cup. Delta Blues ran in the Caulfield Cup then went on to win the Melbourne Cup, while Media Puzzle raced in the Geelong Cup before taking out the big one at Flemington.
This year, Crime Scene and Basaltico both raced in the Geelong Cup, but Changingoftheguard, Mourilyan, Munsef, and Warringah are all yet to race in Australia.
Regardless of the placings in this year’s Cup, it’s a welcome change to see all the pre-race attention on the horses that we’ve had the privilege of watching each week in our own races from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, not international broadcasts from the UK, Asia, and Dubai.
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