What’s the “biggest” flat horse race in the world these days? Brits will tell you it’s the Derby at Epsom. The Yanks reckon the Kentucky Derby or Breeders’ Cup Classic; Irish the Champion Stakes, Japanese the Japan Cup and Hong Kongers the QEII Cup. South Africans probably go for the Dubai World Cup. But a short-priced favourite has to be “the race that stops a nation”. The Melbourne Cup was run for the 160th time on Tuesday and once again Aussies throughout the land stopped what they were doing to tune into the action at Flemington racecourse. Lockdown rules saw…
What’s the “biggest” flat horse race in the world these days? Brits will tell you it’s the Derby at Epsom. The Yanks reckon the Kentucky Derby or Breeders’ Cup Classic; Irish the Champion Stakes, Japanese the Japan Cup and Hong Kongers the QEII Cup. South Africans probably go for the Dubai World Cup.
But a short-priced favourite has to be “the race that stops a nation”.
The Melbourne Cup was run for the 160th time on Tuesday and once again Aussies throughout the land stopped what they were doing to tune into the action at Flemington racecourse.
Lockdown rules saw the usual huge crowd banished, but that somehow sharpened the sense of a country clustered before TV screens and radios. The on-course commentators’ awareness of the cultural significance of the occasion dripped from their words: “the great race”, “momentous”, “the pinnacle”, “immortality”.
What they didn’t dwell on much was the fact that the race was dominated by “Pommies”, also known as people and horses from a cluster of islands in the north Atlantic.
For the third time in four years, British Isles-trained horses took first, second and third place.
Remarkably, 27-year-old Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien denied his father Aidan in the Melbourne Cup for a second time as his charge, Twilight Payment, held off a charging Tiger Moth. In 2017, it was Joseph’s Rekindling that frustrated dad-trained Johannes Vermeer.
The 2020 running was marred by the death of Aidan O’Brien’s second runner, Anthony Van Dyck, who fractured a fetlock in the closing stages and had to be euthanised. Shockingly, it was the seventh equine fatality in the race in last eight years. The Melbourne Cup’s eminence in world horse racing will attract much attention to that horrific statistic, hopefully galvanising the animal rights movement.
As the horses flashed past the winning post, the commentator yelled that this renewal would always be remembered. It was a coronavirus reference, no doubt, but the race will linger long in memory for the brave performance of Twilight Payment.
Australian jockey Jye McNeil took the 25-1 outsider to the front shortly after the start and stretched out the 23-strong field with a brisk pace. In the final stretch, the Irish-bred son of Teofilo kept rolling with heart as Tiger Moth (5-1) and Kerrin McEvoy slowly cut into the lead. At the line there was half a length in it. Flying up the outside to grab third was Prince Of Arran (8-1), from the yard of England’s “society” trainer Charlie Fellowes – a relative of the chap who wrote the TV show Downton Abbey.
Joseph O’Brien, watching from home in Ireland, said: “Jye gave the horse a fantastic ride. All credit goes to the team of lads we’ve had down there in Australia for the last month or so. They have done a fantastic job with the horses down there; they have all run with credit. This is the icing on the cake for them.
“This was his first year with a full preparation with us. He came to us halfway through last season. He ran a couple of huge races at the Curragh. I was a little bit worried today he might have got a little bit of pressure for the lead a bit more than what we had hoped but the horse has got incredible heart and Jye gave him a fantastic ride and he kept fighting all the way to the line.”
Commenting on beating his father again, O’Brien told Sky Sports Racing: “We both realise how hard it is to win on the world stage in these big races, but I am very lucky that I have been able to win a couple of big races.
“Dad has been very lucky; he has won a lot of big races. I’d be delighted for him if he had won, and I’m sure he is for we having won. We do our best on the track and what happens out there happens.
“I was really too nervous to see what was going to happen. I could hardly watch, but it was a fantastic ride by Jye and a fantastic effort by all the lads with the horse.”
Another remarkable outcome was winning joint-owner Lloyd Williams registering his seventh win in the race. The legendary Australian property developer has horses in training in several countries and is known for mainly buying thoroughbreds with Melbourne Cup potential.
A monumental race.
A final thought: South African star Hawwaam is currently en route to Australia to further his career. What are the odds on him being in the 2021 Melbourne Cup line-up?
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