Godolphin’s Melbourne Cup curse continues despite Hartnell, Qewy and Oceanographer’s best efforts

GODOLPHIN’S Melbourne Cup curse continues despite Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum running five horses this year — including the favourite.

Godolphin have five horses in this year’s Melbourne Cup ... but still no winner.

THERE was a mischievous rumour at Flemington that the world’s biggest racing stable had changed its name from Godolphin to God-I’m-Over-It.

In a year when Leicester City, Cronulla Sharks and the Western Bulldogs all cracked the curse, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum maintained his Melbourne Cup duck.

Despite gang-tackling the Cup with five runners, the billion-dollar Sheik was left shaking his head again.

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Godolphin’s Cup curse has become so grim that bookies are now taking bets on whether the Loch Ness monster will pop his head up before The Sheik wins on the first Tuesday in November. And Nessy is the well-backed $1.50 favourite.

Hartnell (third), Qewy (fourth), Beautiful Romance (seventh), Oceanographer (12th) and Secret Number (21st) were the Blue Army runners which went bust.

Sheik Mohammed first sent a foreign Cup raider to Melbourne with Faithful Son in 1998, the same year that cricketer Mark Taylor equalled Don Bradman’s record of 334 in a Test against Pakistan.

But his Cup obsession remains unfulfilled.

Godolphin’s best place finisher was the favourite Hartnell, who came third.

Godolphin had so many runners in the Cup they were forced to hastily manufacture a yellow cap for Qewy to complement the blue, white, black and red ones that have been used in races when had four runners in the past. And their Cup runners were spread across three trainers from three continents.

Godolphin’s main man in England Charlie Appleby was making his first trip to Australia.

The trainer of Qewy and Oceanographer quipped the Sheik might have return with an even bigger Cup team next year.

“As His Highness will always say, if you don’t win it this year, the race will be on again next year,” Appleby said.

“We (Godolphin) will have more than five Cup runners next year. I might have five Cup runners myself next year.”

The Sheik, the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Dubai, has written that his earliest memory was galloping through the desert on a white stallion with his father.

Chad Schofield on Oceanographer (12th) returns to the mounting yard.

He now has global stables in Britain, Australia, France, Japan, Ireland, America and Dubai but the world’s richest handicap remains the nut he cannot crack.

Appleby, who took great satisfaction from Qewy’s fourth placing, spoke to the Sheik on the phone in the Cup lead up.

“His Highness is just happy we are participating ... but coming down here and winning it is another matter,” Appleby said.

“I can only talk for my horses and they performed well.

“If you had told me a month ago that Qewy and Oceanographer were going to run well in this race and Qewy was going to finish fourth, I would have said you were on a different planet to me.

“They performed out of their skins.”

The Sheik has a billion-dollar bank account that the rest of us can only dream of. But he will never rest until he can finally break the hoodoo and improve on his second Cup placings with Central Park (1999), Give The Slip (2001) and Crime Scene (2009).