Front-running underdogs upset the superstars and the punters at Caulfield on Saturday as the track came under fire for having a leader bias just a week out from the club’s $5 million cup.
First it was seven-time group 1 winner Mr Brightside to taste an unexpected defeat. The hero of the Hayes camp was sent out an odds-on favourite in the group 1 Might and Power Stakes at Caulfield in what many punters had predicted would be a push button result.
But when jockey Craig Williams hit go, there was not enough nitrogen in the tank.
At first, he looked to be closing at a suitable rate on runaway leader Deny Knowledge, ridden by Mark Zahra, but by the 200-metre mark he started running out of juice.
Deny Knowledge had ridden the rail and the perceived bias to hold on to win by three-quarters of a length.
“We weren’t good enough today, I was under pressure and the last 200 I was really under pressure for him,” Williams said. “He still was gallant in defeat but it was not the Brightside that we know.”
In a worrying lead up to the Cox Plate, it is the sixth time from six tries that Mr Brightside has failed to notch a victory at the distance. For many, Saturday was his greatest chance.
“The only little excuse we’d say is the drying tack. His form on a good three, doesn’t quite let down 100 per cent, which is unfortunate,” co-trainer Ben Hayes said.
“He somehow attracts sunny skies Mr Brightside. If we get a bit of give, we can bounce back. The Valley, there’s normally a bit more give. I wouldn’t panic.”
Mark Zahra aboard Deny Knowledge beats Mr Brightside home.Credit: Getty Images
In what became a familiar pattern of the day, the group 1 Caulfield Guineas threw up another hell result for punters. This time it was a champion jockey to feel the heat.
Broadsiding was unbeatable. Or so they said. The three-year-old Godolphin colt started in the red, and it was expected to be a formality that he would deliver James McDonald his 100th group 1 winner. Until it wasn’t.
Starting from barrier nine, McDonald quickly steered Broadsiding to the fence, but they soon found themselves stranded back in the pack on a day when it proved tough to make up ground.
This time it was Damian Lane on Chris Waller’s Private Life who hugged the rail and won, holding off longshot Feroce by a head.
Broadsiding closed late for fourth and did enough to suggest he will be competitive in the Cox Plate, but he has lost his claim to favouritism behind Prognosis and Pride Of Jenni.
For McDonald, it was a fruitless trip to Melbourne, and he is still stranded on 99. But unlike Shane Warne who famously blew a chance for his Test ton against New Zealand in Perth in 2001, the century for McDonald is inevitable.
Another Wil was the third of the group 1 favourites to come up short. But his downfall was going too hard, too early.
Spooked by the need to get to the front in the 1600m Toorak Handicap, the final race of the day, jockey Michael Dee drove Another Wil so hard from the inside barrier to hold the lead that he blew up by the home turn.
As the overcooked frontrunners laboured into the straight, they were rounded up by an inspired Blake Shinn who drove Antino to the lead and they shot away for a six-length win.
The jury was still out on the track by the close of play, and as debate raged over the leader bias it took Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Danny O’Brien to bring clarity to a brewing storm.
“This is the best track we have had this spring,” O’Brien posted on social media.
“Proper Good 3 and even all the way across. Caulfield for 100 years has rewarded horses with tactical speed. It’s not a new thing.”
Another on pacer Herman Hesse won the Herbert Power Stakes, which is a golden ticket into the Caulfield Cup, but trainer Ciaron Maher has another staying race in mind.
“He’s a dour, dour stayer. Two miles is his go,” Maher said. “If we can sneak him in, he’ll run a race in the [Melbourne] Cup.”
