Ladies Day–Crown Oaks

Eleonora – Flemington 2/10/16

With the Melbourne Cup being run and won, it’s time to turn our attention to the next Group 1 race in the Spring Racing Carnival, the Crown Oaks, for three year old staying fillies run over 2500 metres.

With my calf muscle now back in walking order I intend to go to the Oaks meeting at Flemington tomorrow, ostensibly for the feature event as two of my favourite fillies will be competing in the event.

Yankee Rose will understandably start as favourite, her earlier exploits in classy company making her the top pick.  Her win in the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes against the boys, including Victoria Derby winner Prized Icon, marked her as a filly of extraordinary ability. Her third placing in the Cox Plate was also full of merit.

I’m very torn between Yankee Rose and her main competitor in the Crown Oaks, Eleonora, and can see either of them winning.

Eleonora has the superior breeding for the race distance and her win in the Group 3 Ethereal Stakes, where she beat subsequent Wakeful Stakes winner Tiamo Grace, was impressive. Tiamo Grace is not in the Oaks field, but Wakeful Stakes runner up, Sebring Dream is, so too the third placed Missrock.

Others with a chance are Harlow Gold and Smart As You Think.

The Oaks is scheduled as race 8  and run at 5.00pm tomorrow, so I’ll be taking my time getting to Flemington, but envisage arriving around 2.30 pm.

Last year a wild storm swept through Flemington early in the afternoon, but the weather this year is forecast to be mild and sunny.

The Flemington mini carnival finale is on Saturday and features the final two Group 1 races of the Melbourne spring racing season, and much as I would like to be there, I am unable to attend due to a commitment to attend a birthday party in Beechworth, a small interesting town in North East Victoria.

So Oaks Day is my last chance to attend a Group 1 race meeting this year.

On the subject of mares and fillies, it was disappointing to learn that Lucia Valentina has been retired, so I’m glad I got to see her twice this Spring. She apparently has a sesamoid injury which precludes her from racing again. She’ll be mated to Fastnet Rock, so we can look forward to seeing her sons and daughters hitting the track in the future.

Though I was also disappointed that Jameka didn’t feature in the Melbourne Cup finish it was obvious that she could not run the 3200 metres. Nick Hall’s ride was spot on again and she was primed at the right time to sprint home, but she faded to finish 15th.

An interesting point that arose from the Melbourne Cup result was that Almandin’s sire, the German stallion Monsun had bred his third Melbourne Cup winner, the others being Protectionist in 2014 and Fiorente in 2013.  That’s something to look for in analysing the runners in future Melbourne Cups. Though Monsun passed away in 2012 his influence could possibly continue with his sons and daughters at stud like the great Sir Tristram and Zabeel in New Zealand.

The Wind & the Rain and WINX– Wow Again

Hugh Bowman & Winx celebrate her 2016 Cox Plate victory

The failure of top sprinter Chautauqua to run a place in Friday night’s Manikato Stakes left me feeling deflated; my high expectations for him to win with his usual last to first dash were disappointed.

The Manikato Stakes was taken out by 60/1 shot Rebel Dane, a shock result for everyone, with Fell Swoop running a very close second, and Japonisme a length back stealing into third place. Chautauqua failed to fire and finished seventh. As his jockey remarked he is not the same horse that took out the Chairman’s Sprint back in May.  He will not continue with his spring campaign and has been spelled. I hope there is nothing wrong with him and that we’ll see him again in autumn.

We will not see old trooper Buffering again as his connections have decided to retire him. He was grand old sprinter who competed against the best in the land and overseas, including Black Caviar, and himself won seven Group 1 races. His last win was in Dubai in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint earlier this year. He will join The Cleaner and all the other wonderful old champs at Living Legends.

On to the Cox Plate…

Weather wise, it couldn’t have been a worse day to go to the races.
A cold wind and frequent showers of rain persisted from morning to night. The temperature barely reached 13°C and was probably a lot colder than that with the wind chill factor.

The race meeting at Moonee Valley seemed as if was being held in winter rather than spring and was reported as being the coldest Cox Plate meeting in 46 years.

That was not enough to put me off attending, so I braved the elements and headed for the bus stop around 12.30pm in plenty of time to board the 12.50pm bus.

Sounds simple enough, but all my careful planning was put in disarray when the bus failed to stop for me. The Moonee Ponds Busline curse had struck again! I had to wait for the next one and decided to kill the time by walking to Clifton Hill Station and catching the bus there.

I finally arrived at Moonee Valley shortly after 2.00pm and, after purchasing a race book,  wandered out to the stalls area to see who had arrived.

Happy Clapper – Cox Plate hopeful in his stall

Black Heart Bart posing with strapper & owner (I assume) for photos

Winx was not in her stall, but I discovered her being walked in the parade ring…

Winx in the parade ring

… and Yankee Rose was there as well.

Yankee Rose with her cheerful strapper in the parade ring

The weather was challenging for photography, and when reviewing my photos some were too over exposed (too bright) and others were under exposed (dark) just like the rapid changes in the weather - sunny one minute, then raining the next.

However, I am not going to complain about the weather as the upside was that the crowds were down in number, and fled the public lawn every time it rained, so it was easy to get a good position on the fence if you didn’t mind getting a bit wet.

With forethought I had purchased, for the princely sum of $4.00, an emergency poncho. Certainly not haute couture, it looked like a white garbage bag with holes for your arms and came equipped with a hood. It may have looked ridiculous but it kept me and my camera dry.

You may wonder why I didn’t take an umbrella, but I loathe carrying them around, and like to keep my hands free.

Imagine my surprise when watching SBS News on Saturday night and seeing myself on TV wrestling with my emergency poncho in the wind when trying to put it on. I managed to save the screen print below from the video.

Rebecca (fellow racehorse photographer) & myself at the fence on the public lawn

Shortly after the above footage was shot, race 6, the Fillies Classic was set to run, so I gave the camera a test run when the fillies moved onto the track and snapped them as they came around the corner into the straight.

Fillies Classic down the straight

It was won by the oddly named Nurse Kitchen, who I admit I had never heard of. She’d only had a few starts previously but surprised even Greg Miles the race caller with her flashing run down the outside to pip race favourite Sezanne at the post at the last minute. I Am A Star ran third.

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Nurse Kitchen on her way to the barriers

The Cox Plate was scheduled as race 9 on the program, so there were two other races to watch before the big one.

Remarkably, despite the frequent showers of occasionally horizontal rain, it cleared when the races were on.

Back in the stalls area more Cox Plate contenders had arrived and were either in their stalls or in the parade ring.

Hartnell in the parade ring

Hauraki in his stall

Lucia Valentina in her stall

Also out and about in the stalls area, was two time (2003/2006) Cox Plate winner Fields of Omagh the special guest from Living Legends.

Fields of Omagh in the parade ring

Race 7 was the Crystal Mile, so I returned trackside to watch it.

The Lloyd Williams owned The United States was making a delayed start to his spring campaign in this race and successfully held off Lidari and Ulmann to win by a length.

 
Down the straight in the Crystal Mile – The United States is about to pass race leader Federal

With the penultimate race before the Cox Plate being the Moonee Valley Gold Cup, I decided it was timely to grab a possie on the fence as near to the finishing post as possible and reconnected with Rebecca who I’d lost sight of for the past hour and who had snaffled a good spot on the fence in the meantime.

And there we stayed for the remainder of the afternoon, enduring the wind and the rain, surrounded by a jolly crowd of punters.

The Moonee Valley Gold Cup is run over 2500 metres and resulted in a Chris Waller quinella, when Grand Marshall outstayed stablemate Who Shot Thebarman.

 
Grand Marshall & Who Shot Thebarman fight out the Moonee Valley Cup down the straight

There was then an hour to wait until the Cox Plate. The intervening time was occupied with various ceremonies and the traditional appearance of Darryl Braithwaite singing “The Horses” to the singalong accompaniment of the exuberant crowd.

Darryl Braithwaite sings  The Horses on the balcony of the Grandstand

As the clock ticked down….

…the excitement built and a palpable atmosphere of pent up anticipation infected the pressure cooker ampitheatre that is Moonee Valley Racecourse.

The rain thankfully held off and soon enough the Cox Plate field filed out onto the track.

Black Heart Bart

Hauraki

Lucia Valentina

French horse Vadamos

Yankee Rose

A huge cheer erupted when Winx stepped out onto the track to make her way to the barriers at the top of the straight.

Winx on her way to the barriers

The race was run at a pretty leisurely pace initially with Black Heart Bart uncharacteristically ending up in the lead as they raced past the winning post the first time.

Down the straight the first time – Black Heart Bart leads, Hartnell on his outside. Winx is on the inside behind Awesome Rock (checked red silks)

As they sorted themselves out around the back stretch, the French horse Vadamos took the lead and at one stage was five lengths ahead of the rest of the field, setting a rattling pace.  As they turned into the school side of the track before the final turn into straight, the gap between Vadamos and the rest shortened dramatically. Hugh Bowman had got Winx to the outside, and fastest side of the track, and tackled Hartnell as they turned for home. The two horse battle was short lived as Winx zoomed away at the turn and swept up the straight to win by eight lengths, the crowd uproariously cheering her to the finish line.

Hartnell headed the rest with Yankee Rose only ¾ length behind him running third.

The burst mode on my camera shows Winx, then many frames of daylight.

Winx on her way to winning her second Cox Plate

We had just witnessed something extraordinary, which made the whole afternoon of being harried by wind and rain worthwhile.

Winx eight length win broke the previous record seven length winning margin set by Dulcify in 1979 and Sunline  in her second Cox Plate back in 2000.

Winx returns to scale and a media scrum after parading down the straight

Winx in the winners rug

It had been an amazing afternoon at the races, with the ghastly weather being more than compensated for by witnessing the star mare win her 13th race in succession and second consecutive Cox Plate in such a sensational fashion. 

Luckily I was curse free getting home, managing to catch a bus at Moonee Ponds Junction as soon I got there and arriving home half an hour later.

Next Saturday the racing action is at Flemington for Derby Day and will seem like an anticlimax. It’s a quality day of Group 1 racing, but will have to be pretty good to beat the Cox Plate.

Great Expectations - 2016 Cox Plate

Winx rugged after winning the 2015 Cox Plate

The Cox Plate is my favourite race of the Spring racing season and this year it looks as if it will be a classic competition, awaited with excited anticipation by all fans of the sport of kings.

A cracker field of ten contestants have accepted and include superstar mare Winx who won the race last year by over four lengths, breaking the course record.

In this year’s Cox Plate she faces her toughest opposition from Hartnell who actually ran in the race last year and finished fifth, ten lengths from Winx.  He seems a different horse this year having comprehensively won his last three starts by large margins. His only defeat this season was his first up loss to Winx in the Warwick Stakes back in August, which she won by over three lengths.

Hartnell’s form was franked by Jameka’s Caulfield Cup victory, considering that he beat her by over three lengths in the Turnbull Stakes.

Winx form this spring is faultless. She has won all her starts effortlessly. My heart will be with her on Saturday as she goes for her thirteenth win in succession and second consecutive Cox Plate, a feat achieved by very few – prime examples being So You Think, Sunline, Northerly and Kingston Town, all champions.

Though it’s hard to look beyond Winx and Hartnell, and as we all know anything can happen in racing, others who could steal the show are lightweighted filly Yankee Rose, the highly regarded French horse Vadamos and Lucia Valentina, especially if the track is rain affected.

Black Heart Bart who has won two Group 1 races and run second in two others this season, has been pretty well overlooked, but is likely to be in the finish somewhere, though I doubt he can beat Winx or Hartnell.

Though I will not be attending the Manikato Stakes meeting on Friday night it being run at the late hour of 9.30pm, I’ll certainly watch it at home.

Last year the grey speedster Chautauqua provided, along with Winx in the Cox Plate, one of the wow moments of the Spring racing carnival with his stunning last to first win in the feature race. He’s out to redeem his reputation after his disappointing showing in the Moir Stakes.

The Manikato Stakes is run over 1200 metres, which is more to Chautuaqua’s liking, so one would expect him to win this time.

He’ll certainly be hard to beat, but trying will be old Buffering, the only horse still racing who competed against the great Black Caviar.  He may be past it, but I’ve thought that before and he’s proved me wrong.

Other challengers in the field with a chance to topple the star sprinter are Fell Swoop and The Quarterback and sole mare English. Golden Slipper winner Capitalist is a lightweight chance, but his form this spring has been disappointing where he has failed to beat his own age group.

The weather forecast for the weekend is pretty dismal with heavy rain on Friday, clearing by Saturday afternoon.

God knows what state the Moonee Valley track will be in after 8 races on Friday night and another 8 races on Saturday afternoon before the Cox Plate is run at 5.00pm, but it has coped in previous years remarkably well.

I hope to reach Moonee Valley rather earlier than I did last year, by catching a different bus to the one I would normally use, it being badly affected by Cox Plate traffic conditions on its route. The alternate route to Moonee Ponds Junction appears to avoid the main traffic snarls around Moonee Valley racecourse, so perhaps it will run on time.

The support card is mildly interesting, with the usual mix of Listed and Group 2 or Group 3 class races to watch while waiting for the main event, but I’m not going to consider them here.

Veuve, Bart, Bon et al–Underwood Stakes Day Review

Black Heart Bart wins the Underwood Stakes

Melbourne woke on Saturday to a fine and sunny day, so it was a pleasure, despite a brisk wind, to head out to Caulfield for the Underwood Stakes meeting.

My arrival at the course was just after Race 3, so I missed Royal Rapture adding a fifth straight win to his season tally, but was in plenty of time for Race 4, the Inglis Cup, a race for four year olds over 2000 metres.

The in form Pay Up Bro started as the warm favourite, but he failed to run a place, with 13/1 shot Portion Control winning narrowly from stablemate Kifaah and Hierarchal.

Down the straight in the Inglis Cup – Portion Control (inside) leads Kifaah and Hierarchal.

The first of the Group races was up next, the Group 2 fillies Thousand Guineas Prelude, so I hung around to wait for them to parade in the pre-parade ring in the stalls area and went up to the hill to photograph them heading for the barriers.

Whispering Brook – started favourite but finished 7th

Legless Veuve – the surprise winner

New Zealand filly La Luna Rossa – ran a close second

Sword of Light – ran third

Just past the winning post – Legless Veuve still ahead

The amusingly named Legless Veuve romped in at big odds, her only previous win being a lowly race at Sale. La Luna Rossa was only beaten by a half length and looked the goods as far as the Thousand Guineas is concerned.

La Luna Rossa’s stablemate Saracino was the favourite for the colts Caulfield Guineas Prelude, but he too failed to place and finished fifth, though only a length from the winner, Sacred Elixir, another New Zealander, who already had a Group 1 race win (JJ Atkins in Queensland over winter) to his credit .

Here are the major players in the mounting yard or heading to the barriers.

Sacred Elixir on his way to the barriers

Saracino on his way to the barriers

Revolving Door – second placed -  in the mounting yard

Wazzenme – third placed - in the mounting yard

 
Sydney colt Evacuation – highly fancied – finished 7th

Down the straight in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude – Sacred Elixir is about to overtake Revolving Door with Seaburge (4th place) just behind.

The Living Legends special guest on Saturday was Might and Power, but I failed to find him. Apparently he was being displayed in one of the children’s play areas, which I avoided like the plague.

However, in the stalls area several of the horses I was keen to see were being walked and I was delighted to get the following photo of Lucia Valentina in the walking ring.

Lucia Valentina in the walking ring

Up next on the program was the first of the Group 1 races, the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes. 

Bon Aurum emulated his sire Bon Hoffa (2007 winner) and won his first Group 1 race.  He managed to hold out the popular Darren Weir trained Voodoo Lad, and Fast N Rocking finished third, the best he has run for years.

Sydney horse Counterattack started as favourite, but like most of the favourites on the day, he finished well back.

Xtravagant was well behaved this time, and ran fiercely in the early stages of the race, but faded to finish at the tail of the field.  I saw him early in the afternoon in his stall and he was good as gold.

Bon Aurum on  his way to the barriers

Voodoo Lad on his way to the barriers

Fast N Rocking on his way to the barriers

Counterattack on his way to the barriers

Xtravagant in the pre-parade ring waiting to go out to the track

Just past the winning post in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes

Bon Aurum returns to scale

The Underwood Stakes was scheduled as the second last race on the program so it was getting on for 5.00pm when the race was run,  the light having deteriorated considerably by then.

Even so, I decided I would get photos of the field in the mounting yard and on the fence, in the gap where an emergency access gate is placed.

The hedge abutting the track at Caulfield is so high that if you were vertically challenged you would not be able to see the track. I heard a number of people complaining about this, but doubt MRC will do anything to improve the view for General Admission patrons.

The emergency access gate does not have a sign to keep clear, so I figured it was OK to stand there as I had been doing on and off throughout the afternoon, and several other persons were  taking advantage of the view as well, when Security turned up and turfed us out.  The horses engaged in the Underwood Stakes were heading to the barriers at that time, so I gave up on getting photos of them running down the straight and headed back to the hill.

Black Heart Bart proved that he had no trouble running 1800 metres and gave Darren Weir his third Group 1 victory for the season. The former Western Australian galloper has become a force to be reckoned with these days under the Weir mantle. His next assignment is the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes where he will encounter the formidable Winx.

Black Heart Bart won by 2½ lengths from He Or She with Lucia Valentina flying home for third at the speed of light.

Black Heart Bart returns to scale

He Or She (yellow silks) and Awesome Rock return to scale

Lucia Valentina returns to scale

Next weekend is chock full of sporting events – the AFL Grand Final being the main show for most of Melbourne.

There is also plenty of racing action, starting on Friday night at Moonee Valley, who will host the Group 1 Moir Stakes in which Chautauqua will be making his first appearance for spring.

Sydney’s main Spring Racing meeting is at Randwick on Saturday and includes three Group 1 races – Epsom Handicap, The Metropolitan and the Flight Stakes.

And on Sunday, the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes is run at Flemington along with several other interesting races.

I may go to Moonee Valley on Friday night, depending on the weather which is forecast to be a vile cold wet day, but will definitely head to Flemington on Sunday whatever the weather.