Melbourne Cup 2011

[AngrySeahorse]

Hope all the G&GR forum members who had a punt today were as lucky as I was (or more so).

1st Dunaden
2nd Red Cadeaux
3rd Lucas Cranach
4th Americain

I had $ on Lucas & came out $44 ahead which was nice. Tightest race ever for 1st & 2nd. The euro horses well & truly know how to win our race now by the looks of the top 10 horses home.

Oh yeah, without trying to turn this into the 9 RWC coverage thread I never thought I'd see something worse than 9's coverage of the RWC but sevens coverage of the Melbourne cup today had to be close to topping it. Cringeworthy to the max!

 

[Scotty]

Had 10 each way on dundaden and 10 place for red cadeaux. Up about 140 for the race. Unfortunately no tri which was paying pretty well at 4500!

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Nice one Scotty! Better over than under! The money on Red Cadeaux for a place is the reason I tend to go for place bets or at least put more $ on the place than the win. Lucas got to the lead there for a second I was pretty excited but Corey went out on him a bit too early me thinks. Great ride though.

I would have loved to have had that trifecta, a mate of mine had a first 4 which included the 1st, 3rd, & 4th but I cant remember what he picked for 2nd, got a feeling it wasnt Red Cadeaux.

Combat Kitty my other pick got up in the race before & Little Surfer Girl got a second earlier in the day so picked them pretty well.

Mum went to the Melbourne cup last year. I'd like to go too but methinks I'm too casual for the cup crowd with my rugby jerseys & jeans

 

[matty_k]

I did my usual mystery trifecta and this has been the closest yet.

It had Dunaden and Lucas Cranach but sadly some goat named Saptapadi.

 

[cyclopath]

I was bloody working!

 

[Mr Doug]

I still think it was a 'dead heat', in that in the official 'still' photo, neither horse's nose was touching the "line"...which used to be a piece of fishing line stretched across the negative by the operator of the Brooks Photo Finish! (A friend of mine operated the photo finish at a NSW country race venue, and showed me once). The outside horse (Red Cadeaux) has a white blaze running down its nose, and the photo didn't do justice to his position relative to the nose of Dunaden!...It's not sour grapes, as the horse I backed, Jukebox Jury, finished 20th!!

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Sorry to hear that Doug my mum backed the Jukebox too, disappointing as there was a bit of hype around it. Felt sorry for my cuz who had Glass Harmonium, Lisa Cropp had a nightmare with that horse he just doesnt stay calm at the barriers. I think they took the blindfold off him too soon & he reared up, totally missed the start. On the finish they said they had to zoom in x5 to get the 'winner', years ago that would have been a dead heat for sure, feel sorry for Red Cadeaux a bit.

EDIT: News stated Jukebox Jury finished lame (so maybe a bit of an excuse there).

 

[barbarian]

I managed to snare the winner and a slice of the trifecta. Best result I've ever had on the Cup. Today was a good day.

 

[Jets]

I lost all of my massive $15 investment.

In regards to the channel 7 coverage the only good part was watching Francesca Cumani. I'm a sucker for a girl with a British accent.

 

[light]

Lost a couple of hundred but quite a fun day nonetheless and I got the misses to call me in sick today after arriving home at 4am.

Don't know why the hell I backed Jukebox Jury and Niwot...

 

[Scotty]

I managed to snare the winner and a slice of the trifecta. Best result I've ever had on the Cup. Today was a good day.

What happened to the quinella then? Losing your touch!

 

[Scotty]

1. French
2. English
3. German
4. French
5. French
6. Irish
7. Irish
8. Aussie
9. US
10. Irish

Austalian horses are getting left behind!

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Lost a couple of hundred but quite a fun day nonetheless and I got the misses to call me in sick today after arriving home at 4am.

Don't know why the hell I backed Jukebox Jury and Niwot...

You're not alone I know heaps of people who thought Jukebox & Niwot were the go.

1. French
2. English
3. German
4. French
5. French
6. Irish
7. Irish
8. Aussie
9. US
10. Irish

Austalian horses are getting left behind!

Certainly agree about the Aussie horses being left behind but on Lucas Cranach, yes he's of German stock (I even call him the German) but he is an Aussie now.

I base what country a horse belongs to as a combination of who trains them & to a some extent who owns them. In Lucas Cranachs case he's been trained by the Freedmans, Aussie trainers. In addition, whilst I dont know all the owners there are two here in the hunter valley that each own 30% of Lucas Cranach - coming to 60% they are majority owners - Aussies again. For all this I consider Lucas Cranach ours and it looks like he'll be doing the bulk of his runs here in the near future (was some mention of Dubai though). If we simply go by birth then Makeby Diva, born in GB, is not an Aussie, which is BS because she was brought here & trained by Aussies in Aussie conditions and became great because of those factors.

That being said I totally agree that we are being schooled when it comes to long distance. I agree with Gai Waterhouse when she said the Australian racing scene is heading toward smaller and smaller distances so our horses just arent getting enough exposure to run a stayers race, too many people are trying to train sprinters into stayers which is possible but christ its much easier if you just concentrate on the one discipline like they do in the NH. Maybe Aussie racing is going the way of Cricket with 20/20, the shorter races might be for people with shorter attention spans or perhaps they can fit more races in one meeting & therefore more betting into a day of racing when then distances are short making it more a money issue.

 

[Scotty]

At least we have the best sprinter then, hey!

 

[light]

All heil, Black Caviar!

 

[light]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW0RfAZX6fA

Great watch, what a champion. Get emotional every time I think about what he endured to win that cup, I don't think we will ever see anything like it again.

 

[Mr Doug]

I lost all of my massive $15 investment.

In regards to the channel 7 coverage the only good part was watching Francesca Cumani. I'm a sucker for a girl with a British accent.

Isn't she gorgeous? Intelligent, speaks beautifuly, great face, great body, her Father trains race horses, she's a good rider, she's just split up with her Argie polo-playing boyfriend.......... all she needs is a Mother who owns a pub, and she'd be perfect!!

 

[AngrySeahorse]

At least we have the best sprinter then, hey!

All heil, Black Caviar!

All that being said about our stayers I still love the sprints & Black Caviar is awesome. I cant wait to see her go head to head with Franklin at some point, maybe then they'll have to get the whip out, havent had to do that yet & given the lengths shes won by that is freaky.

 

[Mr Doug]

Check your "private messages" AS!!