Racing officials should have thrown the chequebook at Jamie Kah this week to ensure she was riding in Melbourne on Caulfield Cup day.
Instead, Kah is snubbing the 2400-metre group 1 handicap and heading to Sydney for The Everest.
Jamie Kah will bypass the Caulfield Cup meeting to ride in Sydney this weekend.Credit: Getty Images
Not that anyone could blame Kah. She is a live chance to win the $20 million glamour sprint on three-year-old colt Traffic Warden and land a bumper pay day.
But it shows just how much The Everest continues to disrupt racing in Victoria. Make no mistake, it’s a body blow for Victoria to lose the No.1 attraction to the Sydney stage at a time the state is desperate to engage a younger audience and bring more women to the track.
Sadly for Melbourne racegoers, she is not the only top jock headed north. Craig Williams, Mark Zahra and Luke Nolen all have rides in The Everest.
In future Victorian officials should consider implementing an ambassador role or jockey incentive scheme to keep their best riders in Melbourne for the spring.
The Everest will be Kah’s first race meeting back following a three-week suspension.
At least she will be at Flemington for the Melbourne Cup after agreeing to ride the Lloyd Williams-owned Point King on the first Tuesday in November.
Mac attack
One jockey who could not get back to Sydney fast enough on Saturday was James McDonald. Usually, the best in the business, J-Mac had a stinker at Caulfield, and didn’t the punters feel it.
When Broadsiding failed to make it first past the post in the Caulfield Guineas, a stack of multi-bets simultaneously went up in flames.
James McDonald rides Broadsiding to the barrier start before its unplaced finish in the Caulfield Guineas on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
McDonald flew into town needing just one group 1 win to take his tally to an unprecedented 100 for his career – at 32, no jockey in Australian history has ridden so many top-level sprinters so quickly.
Which makes his rides on Atishu ($4) and Broadsiding ($1.80) even harder to comprehend. They were carbon copy shockers – they drew wide, were not fast away, were steered to the fence and were caught four back the rail on a day it was tough to make up ground. Despite this, Atishu ran third and Broadsiding fourth, and both are horses to follow.
For his part, McDonald blamed the track.
“Unfortunately for us, Broadsiding being an off-pace runner, we went two furlongs (400m) and had no chance,” McDonald told Channel 7.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t dished up a fair track today, and we were the victims of that.”
While McDonald had a point, Broadsiding was a $1.80 favourite, and it was not too much for punters to expect him to stay off the fence and come with an earlier run. It was race eight, he knew he had to overcome a bias.
Follow the leader
Let’s be clear: the Caulfield track favoured leaders. Six of the first eight winners were sitting in the first three as they turned for home.
Deny Knowledge defeats Mr Brightside to win the Might and Power Stakes.Credit: Getty Images
It didn’t help that punters had their fingers torched. Neither odds-on favourite Mr Brightside nor Broadsiding could make up enough ground in their respective group 1s.
Mr Brightside was beaten by front-running mare Deny Knowledge in the Might and Power Stakes. It was an upset. No one had her pegged as a group 1-winning weight-for-age performer at the start of the day. She was not in the same ballpark as Mr Brightside. She won because she led.
“The track’ s obviously a bit leaderish today, but all-credit to her, it was a good win,” Deny Knowledge’s jockey Mark Zahra said after the race.
The group 1 Guineas threw up a similar result. Ridden by Damien Lane, 12-1 shot Private Life jumped to the front, held the lead, and won. Third-placed jockey Michael Dee, on Evaporate, was left to lament what might have been.
“I think if the track was not as biased and fence dominated, he gets a little bit closer at the finish,” Dee said in the wash-up.
The debate about the track raged into Saturday night. Ratings experts pointed the finger at slow race tempos and sleeping jockeys, while others said it was just the Caulfield track behaving like, well, the Caulfield track. Still, none of this was any consolation to the punters.
Pride Of Jenni wins the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the autumn.Credit: Getty
Pride before a fall
One thing is for sure, Pride Of Jenni would have won the group 1 Might and Power had connections opted to run her at Caulfield at the weekend.
She would have edged around the winner Deny Knowledge, opened up a five-length lead and been impossible to run down. She would have had an extra $600,000 in the kick, and by now she would be a $2.50 favourite for the Cox Plate.
Instead, we are left to ponder what might have been. And Melbourne racegoers were also left to curse Sydney. Again.
Pride Of Jenni did not run at Caulfield because owner Tony Ottobre convinced trainer Ciaron Maher to bypass the Melbourne meeting in favour of running this weekend at Randwick.
It was not without an arm wrestle. Maher wanted to run her at Caulfield as a two-week lead-in to the October 26 Cox Plate. But Ottobre pays the bills, and he had a $5 million reason to twist the trainer’s arm – that is the prize money on offer for Saturday’s 1600m King Charles III Stakes.
The problem is, it means Pride Of Jenni will then be running in a high-pressure Cox Plate off a seven-day break and following a 10-hour road trip back to her Cranbourne stable.
The jury, the judge and the executioner remain in wait. In two weeks’ time, we will know if Ottobre got it right.
Shinn delivers
Blake Shinn took the riding honours on Caulfield Guineas Day with three wins from eight rides, while Antino was the standout runner. The pair combined to win the group 1 Toorak Handicap by six lengths, the last race of the day.
Shinn showed his peers that good things can happen when you seize the initiative. He was stuck last on Antino on a day that everyone claimed you could not make up ground in the home straight.
So rather than wait, he made a lightning raid at the 800m mark, circling the field from last to first by the 600m post and careered away for a startling win. Credit also to trainer Tony Gollan who had Antino in tip-top shape.
One rival caught napping was Craig Williams on Craig (yes, we agree, funny name for a horse). Williams was second last, and let Shinn go rather than follow him into the race.
Craig ran home late for second and one wonders what would have happened had his jockey also seized the initiative.
Jockey Mark Zahra rides Without A Fight to victory in the 2023 Melbourne Cup.Credit: Eddie Jim
Weighty issue
The absence of a genuine top weight in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Defending champion Without A Fight was handed 58.5 kilograms for both races but has since pulled the pin and will not run.
That means Kalapour is looming as the Caulfield Cup top weight with 55kg. One of Victoria’s biggest races has been reduced to a $5 million event for lightweight jockeys.
A similar scenario is looming for the Melbourne Cup. Because there is a “no minimum topweight” rule in place, the weights remain low now that Without A Fight has withdrawn.
As a result, the past two Melbourne Cup-winning jockeys Mark Zahra and James McDonald are unlikely to be riding in the race that stops a nation because they are too heavy for the remaining runners.
Officials need to change the rules and lift the weights when the top weight is scratched.
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
