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The Roar

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Melbourne Cup 2014: Where the race was won and lost

After three second-place finishes, Red Cadeaux was euthanised after the 2015 Melbourne Cup. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
Editor
4th November, 2014
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The 2014 Melbourne Cup was a surprisingly cleanly run race, with the winner Protectionist clearly able to find his way to the front of a staying test – and part of that was due to the speed that was the pace was run.

Official times – 3 minutes 17.71 seconds (last 600m – 35.08 seconds) – indicate that the race was the second fastest Melbourne Cup since 1990. Only Media Puzzle’s win was faster in that period. Going back further, the race was the fourth fastest in the last 30 years.

That pace was injected by My Ambivalence, who led the field with a huge pace until the turn. That pace was far too frenetic – My Ambivalence ended up 17th, having done too much work too early.

But she set the stage for a true staying test, exposing horses like Fawkner, Brambles, Lidari and Lucia Valentina that couldn’t stay the trip – horses that needed a softer pace to be able to unleash a sprint at the end, which is a more typical Australian standard race.

Protectionist lapped up the fast-pace, staying on and emerging to finish the race with a sprint comparable to horses running 1000m.

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