THE CUP - WON AND LOST

There will be two lasting memories of the 2008 running of the Melbourne Cup - one of a winner and one of a loser. As we are about to leave the hype of Melbourne Cup week behind us for one more year, this is my version of those two contrasting outcomes.

PART 1: BART’S BRILLIANCE.

When Makybe Diva went to the line to claim her third successive Melbourne Cup victory three years ago, race caller Greg Miles words, ‘a champion becomes a legend,’ went into racing folklore. Following Bart Cummings’ twelfth victory in the race with Viewed at Flemington last Tuesday, the question now is, what does a legend become when it takes the next step up?

Cummings is there now, so high up above the rest of us he is moving in rarefied atmosphere. A description, which can do justice to his achievement, is hard to find.

I always liked the Anthony Cummings comment. Speaking about his father, Anthony once said, “Dad’s taught me everything I know. The only problem is he hasn’t taught me everything he knows.” And therein lies the rub.

Anthony Cummings is not alone. He could form a club with a guaranteed large membership, which would include high profile trainers from all around the globe, all of whom don’t know what Bart knows.

And what a sense of timing the great man has! Holding back to present his two-hundred and fiftieth Group 1 win on the biggest stage of all ... with the real life drama being added to by the fact that it took a photo and a nose to separate Viewed from the faster finishing Bauer.

Cummings puts the polish on his horses and they shine. Last Tuesday the glow was blinding.

The twinkle that is always in Cummings’ eye was moistened by a tear, which he typically deflected away as being hay-fever.

Congratulated on his twelfth win, Cummings’ response was that he was thinking of bringing up ‘a baker’s dozen next year’.

“Always look ahead, boys,” was his sage advice – a philosophy which has served him well. As has his often stated view that he chooses to remain optimistic, whatever the odds facing him.

"I’m never a pessimist. I don’t believe in it,” Cummings has said.

Want another example of the cool Cummings character?

How about Cummings’ call on the last 200m of this year’s Cup. “At the 200m I thought we had it won. By the 50m I wasn’t so sure,” said Cummings. Not, I thought I was going to get beat. Not, oh no, we’d gone too early – the type of comment you or I might have expressed in our anxiety if placed in that position.

Just, “I wasn’t so sure.” He always allows for a positive outcome.

Pre race-day, Cummings was never fazed by the supposed might of the foreign invasion which had mere mortals scurrying for cover. Sports editors were running polls as to whether the invasion should have been allowed in the first place, while others looked at how they could curtail the threat with restrictive measures in the future.

They were being pessimistic.

Cummings did have a view on the number of visitors that should be allowed, but he never shirked a battle against the best and he just went quietly about his business – the business of preparing Melbourne Cup winners.

On Derby Day, he qualified Moatize to give him two runners in the Cup. Viewed was already in the field. Cummings had all but dodged the spotlight until then, and it quickly moved elsewhere again as conflict between some demanding visitors and rule-efficient racing officials quickly returned to centre stage.

That suited Cummings. He was again allowed to fly under the radar, left to prepare and plan his ambush.

After Viewed had won, Cummings must have wondered where all the so-called experts came from out of the woodwork. Surrounded by microphones, flashing cameras and flashing smiles, he must have known he had just upstaged them all in wondrous fashion.

Now they hung on his every word. A master of this profession ... a magician ... a genius lauded by his subjects. Moments don’t come more regal than that!

It will remain a memory firmly etched in racing history.

But spare a though, as Cummings would have, for trainer Luca Cumani and his team. No, they didn’t win the Melbourne Cup, but they put in a momentous effort and had to swallow the bitter pill of finishing as runner-up for the second successive year.

They are getting closer – in fact any closer would have been a dead-heat this time around. Always professional, never contentious, they conducted themselves with credit throughout their campaign, both on and off the track.

Make no mistake ,we want the Cup to stay in Australia again next year but, if that is not to be, most Australian racing enthusiasts have found a possible future foreign winner they might just be comfortable with.


PART 2: A BAD IRISH JOKE.

Did you hear the one about the three Irish stayers ... well actually, we won’t go there. It’s not funny at all – particularly for those who backed the well-supported Septimus.

The farcical effort of the three Aiden O’Brien trained runners in the Cup was the shocker of the Carnival.

Whatever arrogance led the stable to believe that the Cup would prove to be little more than a training gallop for their might and power, and that all three of the O’Brien runners could go out and set an unrealistic tempo in front and still smash their rivals, the undeniable point is their game-plan showed scant respect for both the high quality tradition of the race and the standard of the opposition.

It was a brain implosion of the highest order and it was no wonder that their world came crashing down in a neat pile at the head of the home straight.

To say that this absolute failure was an embarrassment to the O’Brien team is an absolute understatement.

But while O’Brien’s reputation plunged like the Dow Jones on the day and his angry response at the condition of the track highlighted the fact that he is a sore loser, arguably the most scandalous part of all, is that he and his three riders, who had punters wondering if they had one brain cell between them when they powered away together in the back straight, were all allowed to leave to lick their wounds without one of them being handed a penalty by racing stewards.

As per the Stewards Report, it can be noted that Stewards did open an enquiry, “into the riding tactics adopted on Septimus (IRE) (J Murtagh), Honolulu (IRE) (C O’Donoghue) and Alessandro Volta (IRE) (W Lorden) given that the three horses were ridden in a forward position and having established a considerable margin in front of the remainder of the field before all horses gave ground in the straight."

The report continues: “After taking evidence from the riders concerned, Stewards felt that further questions had to be asked given that the evidence tendered by W Lorden and C O’Donoghue was conflicting. Therefore, trainer Mr Aiden O’Brien was asked to attend the inquiry to establish what the instructions to each rider were.

“The Stewards had to consider whether any particular rider had a charge to answer under the provisions of AR.135(b) where a rider must take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to obtain the best possible placing in the field.

“After taking into account all the evidence before them, the Stewards were not prepared to proceed with a charge against J Murtagh given that Septimus (IRE) had pulled up lame in both forelegs, or C O’Donoghue, given that Honolulu (IRE) had pulled up lame in the near foreleg.

“On the evidence before the Stewards and viewing the race objectively, the Stewards had to be satisfied that the ride on Alessandro Volta was culpable in the sense that it is blameworthy and deserving of punishment. Although the Stewards had grave doubts about the ride, they believe that after taking into account all the circumstances, a charge under AR.135(b) was not warranted. No action was taken against Mr O’Brien.”

So let me get this right. If you run your horse into the ground against all reasonable racing patterns (and the horse has been vetted as being one hundred percent fit prior to the race), and it returns lame, the rider, because of the lameness which affected his run, is immune from being charged with failing to give his mount every possible chance in the race?

Sounds Irish to me.

Go-figure.

While Stewards in the end settled most of their attention on the ride on Allessandro Volta, they should have focussed more on Johnny Murtagh’s ride on Septimus.

The top weight carried hundreds of thousands, if not a couple of million dollars of punters money on his back. It didn’t matter which hemisphere you were in (ie whether the money went down the toilet clockwise or anti-clockwise), the investment disappeared and was well flushed away long before the field turned for home.

Murtagh is no fool and is not short of talent, as is evidenced by his twenty Group 1 wins in 2008, so why he acted the clown on Melbourne Cup day remains difficult to fathom and just how his name does not appear on the following list is, in my opinion, even more of a mystery.

Steven Arnold, Glen Boss, Greg Childs, Jason Holder, Kerryn McEvoy, Peter Mertens, Dan Nikolic, Brett Prebble, Damian Oliver, Nash Rawiller and James Winks – all of these riders picked up suspensions during Cup week.

But, as always, whatever the merit of any argument, the result is in the book and the page has now been turned.

Which leaves me with just one last item of late-mail to deliver.

After their lucrative result, bookmakers around the country were rumoured to be considering whether to commission (another) statue of Bart Cummings or whether to build one in memory of the fallen visitors who have tried and failed to win our great race. The late-mail is, bookmakers apparently couldn’t agree on which way to go, so they have decided to keep all of their money.