Riff Rocket wins the 2023 Victoria Derby
It wasn’t what you would call a first class race meeting, but as Derby Day at Flemington kicks off the Melbourne Cup mini carnival I decided to attend.
The weather was fine and mostly sunny with light winds, so it was a pleasant day to be outdoors and soak up some Vitamin D along with the racing action.
As trains to the track were running all afternoon I had no trouble getting to Flemington and arrived just before Race 3, which happened to be the Group 3 Furphy Sprint, run over 1100 metres.
Either I’m out of the loop, or perhaps just jaded as far as horse racing is concerned, but few of the contenders for the Furphy Sprint were familiar to me.
Queen of The Ball won the race from Hypothetical and Dancing Alone quite easily.
Queen of The Ball wins the Furphy Sprint
Next up was the Group 3 Rising Fast Stakes over 1200 metres, which resulted in a narrow win for Spacewalk from Crosshaven with Najem Suhail running third.
On a side note, Rising Fast who won the 1954 Melbourne Cup was a first class racehorse who also won the Caulfield Cup in 1954 and 1955, as well as the 1954 Cox Plate, and is the first racehorse I was ever aware of back in 1954 at the tender age of seven when living in the bush.
Newspaper photo of Rising Fast from my old racehorse scrap book
Spacewalk and Crosshaven fight out the Rising Fast Stakes finish
Race 5 was the rather more interesting Group 2 Wakeful Stakes, a race over 2000 metres for fillies, where Amazonian Lass, leading from the start, hung on for a close win from Zardozi.
Amazonian Lass (yellow) wins the Wakeful Stakes from Zardozi
Derby Day included three Group 1 races, the first of these being the Coolmore Stud Stakes. Run over 1200 metres, it is a race for three year olds and the 2023 edition resulted in a win for Sydney colt Ozzmosis who raced on the pace throughout to win by over a length from I’m Unstoppable with 2023 Golden Slipper winner Shinzo running third.
Ozzmosis (white) overtaking I’m Unstoppable and Shinzo to win the Coolmore Stud Stakes
Unlike Caulfield who schedule the feature races towards the end of the program, Flemington run theirs mid afternoon. so the Victoria Derby was up next at the reasonable time of 4.20 pm.
Riff Rocket started as the short odds favourite and raced in the back end of the field. He stormed home to win narrowly from Apulia and Sunsets in a photo finish.
Riff Rocket wins the Victoria Derby
I didn’t stay for the third Group 1, the Empire Rose Stakes which was won by Pride of Jenni who led from start to finish. Atishu ran second and Life lessons third.
Attending Derby Day has put me off going to the Melbourne Cup that I was contemplating doing. I’d forgotten how tedious Spring racing crowds can be, even though Derby Day was not as crowded as some I’ve been to.
Besides, the weather on Melbourne Cup day is forecast to be pretty awful.
I managed to catch the train back to Flinders Street in no time at all and was glad to sit down on a seat that was not a plastic fold out stool.
Last year I thought Champions Stakes Day a superior meeting to Derby Day, so will probably attend it next Saturday and hope for classier fields than those on offer last Saturday.
3 comments:
Lovely photos Anne! Great weather you had. I gather the security people on the inside rail, bobbed down or did you have to dodge them?
Funny you should mention the security guards, as there was one who stood directly in front of the winning post, but fortunately an "official" photographer spoke to the offending security guard and asked him to move, so he did so and cleared the POV for every race.
You get lucky sometimes!
Great! You do have to wonder where their brains are sometimes!
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