It might have been 1000 kilometres from Flemington but the best Melbourne Cup trial on Saturday was from Stockman at Rosehill.
The smile from Sam Clipperton as he came back on the stayer, who has used an old-fashioned approach with a Sydney twist, gave away the end to the Rosehill Gold Cup story to trainer Joe Pride, but he knew it already.
Sam Clipperton on Stockman.Credit:Getty
“That was perfect,” Pride said. “It was a fast-run proper 2000m race and he was strong through the line.
“It was exactly what I wanted with him. The track is very firm out there today, so we just wanted to see him get around safely and it was better than that.
“He has only won a Goulburn maiden on a good track and he will go down to Melbourne on Tuesday to a soft track and run a big race in the Melbourne Cup.”
It will be Pride’s first runner and Clipperton’s first ride in the Melbourne Cup and the jockey was beaming about Stockman’s chances after finishing eighth in the Rosehill Gold Cup.
“I got to the 800m and he was just towing me into the race,” Clipperton said. “He just feels so good. I can’t wait to see him again on Tuesday.
“He looks like he is going to get a soft track, which he loves, and I’m sure he will run out the two miles.”
Stockman remains a $31 Melbourne Cup chance, and Pride wasn’t concerned about the float trip.
“I love the quick back-up with stayers, and he is very fit, so will handle the travel,” Pride said. “I think we are getting an advantage on a lot of the others by running [on Saturday].”
Markwell quietly slips away
There was a quietness to Gwenda Markwell’s battle with cancer for the past six months that was the essence of a wonderful horsewoman.
She did want any fuss to be made. She wanted to be near her horses and that’s where she passed away on Friday night in the house which backed onto her stables.
Markwell wasn’t a modern trainer, communicating with her owners trying to keep them happy. She preferred to be with her horses, trying to get the best out of each of them.
She communicated with horses better than people most of the time, but ask those close to her, like jockey Kathy O’Hara, how much they have learnt from Markwell.
Gwenda Markwell.Credit:Brendan Esposito
Markwell’s record shows what a master of the training craft she was: 19 Kembla Grange premierships, it would have been 20 but for the might of Godolphin a couple of years ago.
She had her good horses. Angel Of Truth won the Australian Derby and we never got to see the best of Tancred Stakes winner Grand Zulu, but what she was best at was getting a horse with class 1 ability to win two or three races.
Icebath gets her group 1 without Widdup
Brad Widdup couldn’t be there for the day when Icebath finally got her group 1 as the star mare snatched the Empire Rose Stakes at Flemington on Saturday.
It didn’t dull the delight of his first group 1 at his Hawkesbury stable.
“I have been crook all week and I just said to the owners I couldn’t face getting on a plane to Melbourne,” Widdup said. “I feel a lot better now and she certainly helped that.
“It was never about me winning a group 1 – that was eventually going to happen.
“But for Icebath it would have been a travesty if she didn’t win a big one, and she did it on one of the biggest days of Australian racing.”
Icebath had been second in a Golden Eagle, a Doncaster and last year’s Cantala Stakes, where the camera was needed to declare a result. She had the right form this spring, running another group 1 second to the mighty Anamoe in the George Main Stakes.
“I’m delighted for her and that I won’t have to answer questions about when is she going to win a trophy,” Widdup said.
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