Melbourne Cup: Fiorente beats Red Cadeaux and Mount Athos
Fiorente won the Melbourne Cup for Australian trainer Gai Waterhouse as British-trained runners Red Cadeaux and Mount Athos finished second and third.
The favourite, who was second last year, came with a well-timed run under jockey Damien Oliver to deny the 2011 runner-up Red Cadeaux.
"It's every jockey's dream come true," said Oliver, who recently returned from a 10-month ban for a betting offence.
Brown Panther, co-owned and bred by Michael Owen, finished eighth.
Owen said his runner, who was prominent before fading, had been struck into by another horse during the race.
The Irish-trained Simenon came fourth, while British challenger Dandino was fifth in the two-mile contest, which was watched by a crowd of more than 100,000 at Flemington racecourse.
French challenger Verema - owned by the Aga Khan - was put down after suffering a leg fracture.
In 153 runnings of the contest known in Australia as "the race that stops a nation", no British-trained contender has triumphed although colourful winning trainer Waterhouse was born in Scotland.
Waterhouse is the son of Melbourne Cup-winning trainer TJ Smith and is a former actress, who appeared in Doctor Who and Australian TV series Young Doctors.
"Isn't it nice to have a favourite that can do that? Now I have to do it again, haven't I?" said the trainer after her first Melbourne Cup win.
Oliver was securing his third Cup victory following Doriemus in 1995 and Media Puzzle in 2002. The second victory came just days after the death of his brother Jason in a riding accident.
No comments:
Post a Comment