Green Moon’s 2012 Melbourne Cup victory will be remembered for the great ride of winning jockey Brett Prebble and the failure of French favourites Dunaden and Americain.
Dunaden and Americain were in trouble before the barriers even opened. The Flemington track had dried out completely and no horses made ground out wide in any of the races that preceded the Cup.
So as two horses that were going to be making their runs from the back of the field, Dunaden and Americain were always going to struggle with their big imposts (59 and 58kgs respectively).
The pace set by promising young rider Tommy Berry on Glencadam Gold was quite steady and that turned the race into a sprint home. The last 600 metres of the Cup was completed in a slick 34.07 seconds. That meant the likes of Red Cadeaux (ninth), Americain (11th) and Dunaden (14th) were going to need to produce near physically-impossible closing sections to figure.
The run of Mount Athos to come from 13th on the final turn to grab fifth was incredible. His turn of foot would’ve won him the Melbourne Cup on another day.
The race was won by Green Moon at the 600 metre mark. Prebble angled the six-year old stallion off the inside rail, and having enjoyed a nice run through the first three quarters of the race, was able to use his acceleration (that helped make him the Cox Plate favourite earlier this spring) to best advantage in the straight.
When Prebble asked Green Moon for his surpreme effort he burst three lengths clear. That margin proved too much for Gai Waterhouse’s promising stayer Fiorente to bridge.
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