Saturday, November 01, 2008

Derby Day - Post Mortem

Claire Lindop victorious in the Derby - photo from ABC Net
It turned out to be a very interesting day's racing as expected. History was made as Claire Lindop became the first female jockey to ride a Derby winner, cleverly guiding the 100/1 chance, Rebel Raider, to a very easy win. As I said in my last post the Derby often results in surprising winners. Whobegotyou was left behind, virtually pushed aside by Rebel Raider as he stormed past him and took the lead. Whobe couldn't keep up, but managed to hang on for second spot.

I take back everything I said about Gai Waterhouse's horses not doing well in Melbourne. Her horses in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Northern Meteor) and the Mackinnon (Theseo) both won quite convincingly. Even old Bart Cummings managed to pull a winner out of the hat with Moatize triumphing in the Saab Quality Stakes. Moatize's win qualifies him for the Melbourne Cup and Bart has engaged the services of the remarkable Claire Lindop as his rider. It would be wonderful if Claire rides him to victory thus breaking more records, by becoming the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

Princess Coup disappointed again, never being in the picture as far as the Mackinnon Stakes goes, coming ninth. Forensics however, class mare as she is, was back in the Group One circle, winning the Myer Classic.

The cup field has been announced - 24 runners will be competing. I'll be giving it quite a deal of thought before I hazard a guess at the winner.

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