Without A Fight- Caulfield Cup Review

Caulfield Cup  – Without A Fight & West Wind Blows battle to the finish

Despite the support card for Caulfield Cup meeting not being that interesting, the feature event offered an intriguing conundrum with the large field composed of  several International runners and seasoned familiar stayers.

So forth I went last Saturday to take in some racing action at the track, arriving around 2.00 pm.

The Caulfield Cup was scheduled for 5.15pm so it wasn’t a terribly long sojourn.

A big crowd was in  attendance, so it was hard to get a position on the fence to practice photography, but after finally tracking down my friend Rebecca we settled in a spot not too far from the finishing post.

We even managed to get to the stalls area, though didn’t come across the runners we were interested in other than Gold Trip who was the Caulfield Cup favourite.

 
Gold Trip in his stall

Returning trackside, we were back on the fence for the running of Race 5, the  Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude, a race for three year old fillies over 1400 metres.

Coeur Volante was the winner, beating Vivi Air by a bit over a length, with Zourion snagging third place from Moesha.

Coeur Volante on her way to winning the Thousand Guineas Prelude

Vivi Air on her way to barriers

Race 6 was the Group 2 McCafe Sprint, a 1000 metre dash down the straight that resulted in a win for Doull, who defeated Spacewalk and Generation.

Doull (red silks) outguns Spacewalk to win the McCafe Sprint

Skew Whiff started as favourite for Race 7, the Group 2 Tristarc Stakes, but Wrote to Arataki who led from the start, held on to win from Shuffle Dancer and Call Di.

 
Wrote to Arataki wins the Tristarc Stakes

After the running of the Tristarc Stakes, there was only one more race to run before the Caulfield Cup.

This was the Group 3 Moonga Stakes and Buffalo River, race favourite, led field from the start and won easily from Climbing Star.

Buffalo River on his way to winning the Moonga Stakes

A big field of eighteen runners faced the starter in the Caulfield Cup, so I suppose it was really no surprise that International runners West Wind Blows (the favourite) and Without A Fight ended up running the quinella with top weight Gold Trip finishing third.

Without A Fight (no 2) about to overtake West Wind Blows in the Caulfield Cup

With the Caulfield Cup run and won, I headed for the station and home.

Next Saturday is Cox Plate Day, so hopefully it will be a more interesting afternoon at the races than Caulfield Cup Day.