The Cup - and other news!
Boy is tomorrow's Melbourne Cup hard or what?
I have gone cross-eyed in the past couple of days trying top line up the northern hemisphere form - and let's be real here - it does, with the exception of Niwot, look the form that is going to be most relevant to tomorrow's "race that stops a nation."
At this early stage I am leaning to the Godolphin runner, LOST IN THE MOMENT, to be ridden by ace young jockey William Buick (who is currently stranded in Hong Kong as I write this - due to the Qantas fiasco).
He looked a certainty beaten behind his stablemate Opinion Poll in the Goodwood Gold Cup and I really liked the way he quickened over the last 200 when he got into the clear.
Godolphin have come so close on so many occasions, and this just might be their year. I have fined the main chances down to Lost In The Moment, Americain, Modun (the other Godolphin runner), Niwot, Mourayan, Red Cadeaux and Lucas Cranach.
And, it was hard to discard Dunaden and the Mark Johnston-trained pair Jukebox Jury and Foxhunt.
Many Australians will not be too aware of young Buick, but he is a very talented young jockey. He has already ridden 8 Gr 1 winners including the last two English St Leger winners and a major at the World Cup meeting in Dubai.
WHAT A JEWEL!
The superlatives that were rolled out after ATLANTIC JEWEL'S win in Saturday's Wakeful Stakes were well and truly warranted - especially after you look at her sectionals for the last 400 and 200 of the race.
She is actually starting to get into the "Surround class" and who knows, judging on Saturday's win - she just may have won last week's Cox Plate to emulate the feat of that champion filly three decades back.
One thing is abundantly clear - I think she has all the three-year-olds - colts included - well covered. She just has too much brilliance for her age group and could simply be anything.
Currently she looks like Black Caviar's understudy!
GAI OPENS HER GOB!
It seems like every carnival - when Gai's (Waterhouse) horses aren't firing up big time she has to say something pretty dumb to keep herself in the media spotlight.
Over the autum,n it was the apparel and hair design (or what Gai considered to be the lack thereof) of Prime Minister Julia Gillard that grabbed a headline - now it is the payment of Melbourne Cup prizemoney and the the assumption that some of the international runners are "rubbish."
It was actually her horse, Older Than Time, a trillion zillion to one of winning tomorrow, that kept a real live hope, Bauer, out of the race. She is also espousing that prizemoney be paid to "fifth or perhaps sixth" and not down to 10th (who cop $100k) for competing.
That is real big of Gai, considering she hardly races any horses and therefore does not cough up for the bills. Owners get rorted enough in this game without Gai coming up with another formula to stop owners from getting prizemoney and it might be just best if she concentrated on getting Older Than Time to finish within 200 metres of the winner tomorrow and recoup some of the $39K it has cost Gooree to pay up for final acceptance.
I'll bet she does not complain too much about the prizemoney if either Tullamore or Older Than Time finish between sixth and tenth!
ENTRAPMENT FLOPS - MEMORY SHINES:
The two group races in Hong Kong yesterday shed unexpected different lights on the local prospects in the lead up to the major international carnival there in December. All and sundry expected the previously unbeaten Entrapment (Douglas Whyte) to maintain his unbeaten record for Aussie trainer John Size in the Gr 2 Patron's Bowl (1200m) instead he had his colours lowered by long-priced stablemate Rich Unicorn (Mark Du Plessis).
Entrapment was held up for a while on straightening behiond the leader Multiglory and had Little Bridge on his outside - but the $1-40 favourite could not quicken sufficiently when the gap did come at the 200 and he was disappointing on face value.
On the other hand, California Memory, trained by Tony Cruz, was absolutely sensational in winning the Gr 2 Shatin Trophy (1400m). Having his first start since breaking a hind splint bone in the Singapore Airlines International Cup last year, the little grey horse was aided by what could only be described as a great "ballsy" ride by Matthew Chadwick.
Having drawn wide, Chadwick elected to go back at the start and found himself last on the first turn where he elected to switch down to the rails and ride the horse for luck. From there, he went around one horse, the leader and stablemate Beauty Flash just inside the 200 metres mark and California Memory sprinted hard to beat Xtension (Darren Beadman) and Thumbs Up (Brett Prebble) in a driving finish.
The horse, who provided Chadwick with his only Gr 1 success to date in Hong Kong last season - is back big time and he will be a force to be reckoned with come International Race Day.
AUSSIES CLEAN UP IN WUHAN
Australian bred horses were to the fore at the second annual China Horse Championship meeting in Wuhan over the weekend. Australian bred horses by Lonhro, Hussonet, Rohatyn and Fastnet Rock won four of the five championship races.
Racing in Wuhan is still developing and it is significant to note that representsatives of Australian sales company William Inglis and Son made the effort to be at the weekend's two day meeting.