The country’s best jockey, James McDonald, will be sweating on gaining a Melbourne Cup ride this week.
J-Mac’s only hope is if Chris Waller decides to back-up star mare Via Sistina in the Cup after her scintillating Cox Plate victory.
James McDonald pilots Via Sistina to Saturday’s Cox Plate victory.Credit: Getty Images
She rocketed into favouritism after the win and looks every bit the chance to stay the 3200 metres with 56 kilograms, despite being by Fastnet Rock (out of a Galileo mare).
Waller said he would make a decision in coming days, but it is hard to believe he won’t follow his 2021 blueprint – Verry Elleegant won the Melbourne Cup, carrying 57kg, after running third in the Cox Plate.
There was good news for Jamie Kah, who lost one Melbourne Cup ride on Saturday only to pick up another the day after.
Kah would have been dismayed to learn that her scheduled ride for the first Tuesday in November, the Lloyd Williams-owned Point King, had been pulled out of the staying race because his action had gone amiss.
Jamie Kah has picked up a replacement Melbourne Cup ride.Credit: Eddie Jim
But Kah, who came third in the Cox Plate on Broadsiding, was snapped up by the Maher stable to ride lightweight Okita Sushi, which rocketed into contention after winning the Moonee Valley Gold Cup on Friday night.
Disappointingly, last year’s winning jockey Mark Zahra is all but certain to be sitting on the sidelines because there are not enough suitable horses in the handicap event in his 55kg weight range.
Racing Victoria said it would be looking at rules around the weight scale next year to ensure the best jockeys, who hover around the 55-56kg mark, have more chances to gain a ride.
Too much was asked of fan favourite Jenni
History can prove an unkind judge. Pride Of Jenni’s 16-length second last in the Cox Plate will go down in the record books as a flop.
Declan Bates atop Pride of Jenni before Saturday’s Cox Plate.Credit: Getty Images
But it is hard to believe she was given every chance to be at her breathtaking best.
While the race was won in record time, thanks largely to Pride of Jenni setting the early pace, she was uncharacteristically beaten well before the final turn.
Expecting the mare to back-up in a high-pressure 2040m group 1 race against world-class opposition just a week after running in a $5 million 1600-metre group 1 race in Sydney was clearly too much to ask.
That decision ultimately fell on owner Tony Ottobre. He overruled trainer Ciaron Maher who had made it known he preferred to run Pride Of Jenni over 2000m in the Might and Power Stakes as a two-week lead-in to the Valley’s showcase event.
As Maher said after the Cox Plate: “She didn’t run to form, but it was always going to be a bit of an ask.”
Horses, like humans, are set for grand finals, and two in two weeks is one too many, even for a wonder-mare such as Pride Of Jenni and a master horseman such as Maher.
A well-earned Coffey break
Few would be forgiven for thinking that man of the moment Harry Coffey disappeared off the face of the earth this week after his Caulfield Cup heroics.
Coffey’s name was nowhere to be found in the form guides as the sport continued to race across the state.
But the Swan Hill jockey has been serving a seven-day suspension for a minor riding indiscretion – a penalty from a meeting before the Caulfield Cup – and will return to the track on Tuesday.
According to connections, the week off has allowed Coffey to reboot and spend valuable time with wife Tayla and 18-month-old son Thomas.
He has also shared a catch-up family dinner with parents Austy and Maree and younger brother Sam.
Coffey, 29, is expected to be back in the city and riding at Flemington on Derby Day, but at this stage is unlikely to have a mount in the Melbourne Cup.
Coffey is among a deep pool of talented lightweight riders who do not get a ride in every group 1 race.
McDonald fined for celebrating a huge victory
Racing stewards copped a stack of blow-back on social media on Saturday night after fining McDonald $2000 for his celebration on Via Sistina.
McDonald’s celebration drew the ire of stewards.Credit: Getty Images
McDonald stood high in the irons for the last 50m of the Cox Plate, an action that has always been frowned upon by racing’s “fun police” for safety reasons. Not that it will trouble McDonald, who stood to collect up to $150,000 for his two minutes’ work at the Valley.
Of more concern was the aftermath of a rough-house end to the group 2 Crystal Mile.
Jockey Blake Shinn was incredibly lucky not to be brought tumbling to the ground when his mount Light Infantry Man clipped the heels of the horse in front, Von Hauke, ridden by Craig Williams.
On early replays, it looked like Williams had cut off Shinn and caused the dangerous interference. But after hearing evidence, stewards determined that Shinn did not have clear running along the rail before Williams corrected his horse and closed the narrow gap.
No action was taken against Williams, but one wonders if the outcome might have been different had Shinn fallen.
Jordan Childs copped a 10-race suspension for careless riding for an incident that happened soon after in the same race aboard the winner Plenty Of Ammo.
The rich are getting richer
The placings in the Cox Plate and last week’s Caulfield Cup were a sobering reflection of just how dominant the big stables have become.
Gone are the days, it seems, of a small-time trainer jagging one of our showcase events. It is even rare for the little guys to have a starter.
Cox Plate winning-mare Via Sistina was bought by the Chinese-owned outfit Yulong Investments for $5 million at an English sale-to-race in Australia. Try finding one of those in a country barn.
Then the race placings were filled by Japanese import Prognosis, Godolphin-owned Broadsiding and the Lindsay Park-trained Mr Brightside.
The first three past the post in the Caulfield Cup were expensive European imports – Duke De Sessa (Ciaron Maher), Buckaroo (Chris Waller) and Land Legend (Waller). The fourth horse home was the James Cummings-trained and Godolphin-owned Zardozi.
Ciaron Maher’s Duke De Sessa and Chris Waller’s Buckaroo run one-two in the Caulfield Cup.Credit: Getty Images
The one great hope for the romantics who love a battler is The Map.
The six-year-old mare is trained at Murray Bridge by Dan Clarken and Oopy MacGillivray. It will be ridden by British-born, Sydney-based hoop Rachel King in the Melbourne Cup. The Map is a $34 chance.
Operating at the margins
If singer Nick Cave was shocked by the horrendous efforts of Artificial Intelligence to write a pop song, he would be flabbergasted by the TAB’s use of AI to write horse summaries for its online form guides. Not that Prince Of Darkness has a bet.
But even he would see that the betting giant’s runner comments lack a human touch. Or any real insight. Or any actual intelligence.
Consider the wrap for Japanese runner Prognosis, which started favourite in the Cox Plate and is clearly a world-class horse.
According to the TAB’s form guide bot, Prognosis was a “marginal prospect” heading into Saturday’s race.
Prognosis did not win the Cox Plate, finishing second behind the barnstorming Via Sistina, but it was still a pretty good run for a marginal prospect.
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