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When Irish horse trainer Dermot Weld won the 1993 Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop, first race up, previously sight unseen, he set a template for overseas connections that they all thought they could follow.
It’s the height of arrogance for overseas connections to think they can lob here a week out from the Cup, with their horses in quarantine for a month, saddle up with no previous run, and canter in to win the money.
Last Tuesday, another Irish trainer, Aiden O’Brien, at one stage had his horses first, second and third with the rest of the field strung out many lengths behind. On the final turn, with a long 400 metres to go, the three Irish horses “blew up,” to finish 18th, 20th and 21st (last).
And rightly so, I say.
Even when he won his second Melbourne Cup in 2002 with Media Puzzle, Weld had the good sense to give his horse a prior run, winning the Geelong Cup. Similarly, when the Japanese horses Delta Blues and Pop Rock quinella-ed in 2006, they both had a prior run in the Caulfield Cup.
The smart overseas connections are now realising that they must give their horses at least one, maybe two runs before the Cup to bring them not only into full fitness, but also used to the harder Australian tracks.
But we won’t tell them too loudly, or they’ll start winning every Cup!
Having said all this, I’m in favour of overseas horses competing in our great race. They add to the rich history, drama, pathos, pageantry, thrills and spills of the race.
Also, they are filling a void vacated by Australian breeders who have abandoned breeding stayers in favour of sprinters and milers, who give them a return on their investment quicker and earlier.
Thoroughbred racing needs its staying races as well as milers and sprinters. While breeders and punters might only be interested in a quick return on their investment, the industry needs a lure. It needs its champion horses, over different distances.
Otherwise the whole industry will become homogenised and uninteresting, a bit like North American racing has become.
Getting back to the Melbourne Cup, I would have two qualification streams: one for eight overseas horses and another for sixteen Australasian horses. This way, local (Australian and New Zealand) connections know they are guaranteed two-thirds of the field and overseas connections one-third of the field.
Bart Cummings’ twelfth Cup win with Viewed demonstrated that his training methods are still relevant.
Over 50 years, Cummings has rarely strayed from giving his horses a final tune-up run on Derby Day before the Cup and at least two runs in the preceeding month.
Cummings’ mantra has always been “get the miles into the legs.”
To think that as a nine year-old, I tipped Cummings’ first Melbourne Cup winner way back in 1965, Light Fingers.
It was the first Melbourne Cup I ever saw on TV, and I fell in love with horse racing from that day.
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