Melbourne Cup 2008

Septimus nearly last, Honolulu last and tailed off. Allesandro Volta not much better

Profound Beauty 5th
Mad Rush 8th
Bauer 2nd
 
Honolulu finished last, Alessandro out the back as well and Septimus beat a handful home if that.

I remember tipping Honolulu up last time at Doncaster because of the ease in the going. He was struggling to lay up after a couple of hundred metres today...hated every step.
 
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Jeez. That's not the story the BF prices showed when the race was suspended!
What a disaster for Ballydoyle/Coolmore, will watch the replay in the morning just for interest
I've lost quite a lot on the race - what a bore!
Thanks for the info, will get some kip now
 
Think he finished nearer last than first

Tactics by Ballydoyle were horrible once again ..too fast ..too early

A total joke by the Ballydoyle crew
 
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Those Irish jockeys and their tacticians are an absolute joke! They were in front by 6 lengths or more and were all gone on the home corner. The track had been rated as dead in the morning and upgraded to good.
 
Bart Cummings' trained his 12th Melbourne Cup winner and 250th Group 1 winner.

He is 81 next week. An absolute credit to the racing industry down here, and a master trainer.
 
I suppose if they'd tried to hold up the pace they would have got slated for that too. The hard ground would have been something the Irish jockeys wouldn't have been familiar with and was perhaps the reason they went off too fast. Also, Septimus wasn't going to come from off the pace to win either. Boss said Profound beauty wouldn't let herself down on the last 2 furlongs.
 
Septimus is not a slow horse, he did not need to be ridden like that.

Watching it again this morning it is even worse than first viewing...around 6 lengths clear at one stage.
 
From the Sportinglife:

The Ballydoyle team was later called into the stewards' room to give evidence over jockey Wayne Lordan's ride on Alessandro Volta, the only one of the three not to be found by vets to have pulled up lame. No sanctions were imposed.
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Close your eyes and visualize the conversation. I would say he got fair thick with them....

From www.theage.com.au
Stewards grill O'Brien over tactics for trio


Tony Bourke
November 5, 2008




THE world's leading trainer, Aidan O'Brien, was summoned back to Flemington by chief steward Terry Bailey more than 90 minutes after the last race yesterday to explain the riding tactics given to his jockeys on his three runners after their shock failures in the Melbourne Cup.
O'Brien admitted that he didn't get the tactics right and that he had considered scratching his horses on the morning of the race "because the ground was like concrete".
The stewards had earlier questioned the jockeys Johnny Murtagh (Septimus), Colm O'Donoghue (Honolulu) and Wayne Lordan (Alessandro Volta) individually before adjourning the inquiry so O'Brien could be called.
The O'Brien trio finished 18th, 20th and 21st in the race after weakening from the home turn. They were five lengths clear of the main body of the field at the 1700 metres.
Stewards later reported that Septimus and Honolulu both pulled up lame. They then focused their attention on Lordan, who explained that he had been instructed to go forward on Alessandro Volta and set an even pace.
Bailey said stewards had considered charging Lordan for not allowing his mount to obtain the best possible place in the field.
When O'Brien returned to the course at 7pm, he was asked by Bailey to explain the tactics and immediately got on the front foot. O'Brien said he had "told the whole world over the last week" how the horses were going to run. As far as Lordan was concerned, O'Brien said he told him "don't be afraid to go to the lead rather than break stride" after leaving the straight the first time.
"I told him to let the rhythm flow because we wanted the pace to be even and level. If we dropped them in behind (the pace) they had no chance," O'Brien said.
He said the "ground was like concrete" and they could have "taken all the horses out".
"(Owner) Mr (Derrick) Smith said this morning maybe we shouldn't run Septimus." As for the horses running freely in front, O'Brien said "what was the point of holding horses up if the race is slowly run?" Bailey asked O'Brien if he considered Alessandro Volta was ridden to give him every possible chance. O'Brien said Lordan had let the horse bowl until the mile and then let him stride. "We came down here to do our best," O'Brien said. "f I had wanted to set up the pace I would have brought down a miler."
The sectional times indicated the first 1600 metres was five seconds quicker than last year but the overall time of three minutes 20.40 seconds was well outside the race record of 3:16.3. "If I had known they were going to feel the ground so bad I wouldn't have run them," O'Brien said "We did our best (but) we didn't get it right. If I thought they'd run that badly they wouldn't have run at all."
O'Brien then challenged Bailey to take action over the ride of Lordan on Alessandro Volta.
"If you are going to penalise me or the lads, that's a nonsense, we have come here in good faith." Bailey retorted: "The questions we asked of your riders is what we did every day and we got conflicting answers. It is natural for us to ask the trainer to clarify the evidence — whether it's Aidan O'Brien or a one-horse trainer from Colac."
O'Brien also asked "Do you think we were running our horses for Bart Cummings?" to which Bailey replied: "I wouldn't have thought so."
Bailey said the stewards had "grave doubts" about Lordan's ride but a charge could not be warranted and they were not prepared to take the matter any further.


O'Brien said the way his horses ran yesterday could see him change his game plan in future.


"We have to look at our preparation, they (the horses) ran stones below their best."


As for Cummings winning the race, O'Brien said: "As I've said before, he is unbelievable, perhaps I should come down here and work for him."
 
O'Brien is a saint not to mention Cummings' pre-race European comments, nor to tell the stewards where to go..
 
Were it not for the BHA/Newmarket incident would this and the team tactics thing that has followed O'Brien around Melbourne even have come up? If you think O'Brien has wrong at Newmarket etc it is only right that the Aussie's brought him in today about Alessandro Volta.

Getting back to the horses, Honolulu and Septimus both pulled up lame and sore. Big mistake to run them on that ground and with next year in mind you can certainly rule Septimus out of a race like the Gold Cup on likely fast ground.
 
I just hope O'Brien brings the right type of horse for this race next year. He needs to bring something that races off the pace, and has an explosive finish.

Luca Camani got it right after the first time around. Bring something that puts itself into the race, and can finish it off by exploding.

I think Camani has also gotten it right by using several of the lead up races to acclimatise his charges to our style and vigour of racing. Bauer and Purple Moon both raced in the lead ups, before running 2nd in the Cup.

Dermot Weld did the same with Media Puzzle back in 2002. The horse breezed away in Geelong Cup (the same race Bauer won) before walking away with the Melbourne Cup.
 
Not to mention the Japanese used the Caulfield Cup as a prep race for the Melbourne Cup, before running 1 and 2 on grand final day.
 
Mahler did not have a prep and did not have a strong finish.....yesterdays race told us nothing about the type of horse Ballydoyle need to bring...just their tactics.
 
He should try them out on the M50 in the middle of the night before they go next year to see if they'll like the going.

I was going to blame ND for them not having enough bone to cope with the hard going but I remembered Makybe Diva again.
 
The going wasn't hard! The going was dead in the morning and upgraded to the slowest good rating possible. No other horse had problems with the surface during the entire day.

They put 25mls of water on the track on Monday. Look for another excuse guys.
 
Difficult race to weigh up. Ballydoyle tactics did look a bit strange at first glance, but essentially they made a degree of sense IMO. They went off a very fast gallop down the straight the first time, but seemed to take a breather down the back straight, before kicking for home, presumably to make use of Septimus' stamina. The way they finished makes it very hard to believe tactics was the primary reason for the poor performances.

Profound Beauty ran a cracking race. Possible that she didn't quite get the trip as her effort seemed to flatten out somewhat inside the last furlong. No surprise to hear Oliver say she hated the ground though.

I absolutely loved the way the winner was travelling into the straight BTW. Took the jock to the front pulling double! Classy horse.
 
Rodo said:
The going wasn't hard! The going was dead in the morning and upgraded to the slowest good rating possible. No other horse had problems with the surface during the entire day.

They put 25mls of water on the track on Monday. Look for another excuse guys.
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Bit odd that 2 of the horses came back lame? And that is all we know of.

Anyway like I said the ground was not an excuse, impossible to judge any of the three Ballydoyle horses ridden like that.
 
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