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OTM Al
11-04-2008, 01:49 PM
What a tremendous race this year. The European invaders fell flat, but the finish is spectacular. Here is the best youtube version I saw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0JOPOGJ3c&feature=related

cj
11-04-2008, 01:56 PM
It was a great race. Watching last night, I couldn't help but notice how small the runner up looked. Nice performance. Hard to believe a 2 mile race could come down to a centimeter.

scgmhawk
11-04-2008, 02:02 PM
I watched on TVG last night. I hadn't seen it before but it looks like it's their Breeders Cup. I think the Cup race is the longest running Handicap in the world. I really haven't seen much of the Australian racing but it was pretty exciting. Really large fields.

I actually hit a trifecta on one of the races. Whoever did the "picks" on the free pp's did a pretty good job picking the contenders on most of the races. Unfortunately, he didn't have the 94:1 Cup winner!

robert99
11-04-2008, 02:07 PM
Thanks for link to a tremendous 2 mile race.
Euros finished second (nose) and fifth but Aiden O Brien trio in trouble as Flemington Stewards called them in for either riding as pacemakers or collusion.
Well done Bart Cummings - 81 on Friday and winning his 12th MC.

robert99
11-04-2008, 02:16 PM
It was a great race. Watching last night, I couldn't help but notice how small the runner up looked. Nice performance. Hard to believe a 2 mile race could come down to a centimeter.

Bauer (IRE) the runner up still managed the following (200m just under 1f)final half mile sectionals and lost out:

11.5 11.3 11.14 11.66

scgmhawk:
The Grand National is a jumps handicap that runs over 4.5 miles.
There are several lower order handicaps longer than 2miles

broadreach
11-04-2008, 02:35 PM
Was a fantastic spectacle. I guess the winner had that 'hidden form'.
Attendance wasn't bad at 107,000!

foregoforever
11-04-2008, 04:00 PM
Also interesting to note that the winner ran in the Gr 1 Mackinnon Stakes (10f) 3 days earlier, as did several other runners. About half the rest of the field ran on Cox Plate day a week earlier.

The Melbourne Spring Carnival, which runs for about a month and wraps up this weekend, blows the Breeders Cup out of the water, imo. Not only does it include "championship" races in every division, but horses routinely run in 2 or 3 races during it. Master O'Reilly ran in the Caulfield Cup on 10/18, the Cox Plate on 10/25 and in the Cup last night. A few years ago, Makybe Diva won both the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, 10 days apart.

Most of these horses have the same bloodlines as our US horses, so you can't attribute the difference to breeding. But Aussie horses are typically turned out for 4-5 hours a day. Makybe Diva's trainer used to take her and his whole stable swimming in the bay several times a week. In contrast, US horses are kept in their stalls 23 hours a day and, of course, pumped up with all sorts of drugs. The Aussies treat their horses like horses; we treat them like commodities.

foregoforever
11-04-2008, 04:19 PM
What was Coolmore thinking? (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24604106-5006021,00.html)

MickJ26
11-04-2008, 04:47 PM
Also fascinating to see was an inside look at a steward's inquiry on one of the undercard races. Each side presented their arguments and came to the right decision. I don't know if that's s.o.p down there or just because the national spotlight was on. It'd be great if we had that here in the States.

scgmhawk
11-04-2008, 05:10 PM
I saw that as well, Mick. It was great insight!

Peter Berry
11-04-2008, 05:27 PM
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/large-gallery/0,25410,5035555-5017793-01,00.html

rrbauer
11-04-2008, 05:37 PM
What a tremendous race this year. The European invaders fell flat, but the finish is spectacular. Here is the best youtube version I saw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0JOPOGJ3c&feature=related

A great video. Enough horses in that race to fill 4 or 5 fields in Calif or Meadowlands!!

comet52
11-05-2008, 05:24 AM
Australian racing is intelligently run and quite popular there; it wouldn't survive two weeks over here. :lol:

Robert Fischer
11-05-2008, 10:51 AM
Was a fantastic spectacle. I guess the winner had that 'hidden form'.
Attendance wasn't bad at 107,000!

Apparently he used the 4 previous races as workouts. He knew he had a good stayer and just wanted to get him in shape. Anyone reading the form would tend to think the horse had no chance, because the last 4 were not impressive, and especially because the horse had just had a race a few days earlier.


I asked an aussie chick and she tipped me to honolulu and and barbaricus.... :bang: this 12 melbourne cup titles and 3 of them with the same owner thing is the type of stuff i would have liked to have known :D

joanied
11-05-2008, 11:34 AM
Guess those 'rabbits' did their job...but, regardless, that was the best 2 mile race I ever saw...fantastic finish!!