Battler Andy Hall becomes king for a day as bargain buy Polanski salutes in Victoria Derby

DERBY FINAL 400M VIDEO: ANDY Hall is a builder and a battler. Yesterday he and a few friends became kings of the racing world for a day.

Polanski

ANDY Hall is a builder and a battler. He’s in his 70s and still working in Brisbane, quietly chipping away on that housing loan that is about to suddenly disappear.

ANDY Hall is a builder and a battler. He’s in his 70s and still working in Brisbane, quietly chipping away on that housing loan that is about to suddenly disappear.

He’s never had a lot — and never craved for much more — but something very special happened to him at 3.05pm yesterday.

He and a few friends became kings of the racing world for a day when their $4000 purchase Polanski won the $1.5 million AAMI Victoria Derby at Flemington.

By shelling out $1000 for a quarter share of Polanski he is entitled to around $200,000 prizemoney. It felt like $20 million.

“It’s just so exciting — I’ll be able to pay my house off," said Logan-based Hall, who is also working on a house at Gumdale.

“Honestly you have no idea how I feel now."

Hall, who until yesterday had never been to Melbourne, has only ever owned four horses and never paid more than $6000.

“That was the most I have paid but not any more," he said, hinting at a future buying spree.

“I have had a couple of bushies and only really started in the industry seven years ago.

“I used to race greyhounds. You have no idea some of the things that happened.

“We would race dogs at Casino and sometimes we would run out of money and have to leave a note at the hotel telling them we would pay them when we got home, which we always did.

“I have not even worked out what I will get out of this. It doesn’t matter. It’s worth more than money.

"It doesn’t matter whether it is here or the bush. Winning provides great excitement."

It won’t stop him working though.

“I will be back at Gumdale working on that house — but not until Wednesday. I want to try and get some tickets to the Melbourne Cup. I’ll never stop working. There is only so much fishing you can do. If you stop working you die."

It was one of those races where you didn’t have to back the winner to feel like a winner yourself.

In the mounting yard after the race I must have heard the words “great story" 10 times as racing’s grand but elusive dream — that a horse plucked from the very bottom of the bargain bin can beat the millionaires — was played out before us.

With the Melbourne Cup dominated by the mega-rich — this was a beautiful moment for the sport.

And for horse trading.

Just as Takeover Target — purchased for $1250 before winning $6 million — triggered a buying frenzy at the bottom of the market, so has Polanski provided inspiring evidence that occasionally you can find a needle in a haystack.

There are some who believe that our great race — the Melbourne Cup — will never have one of these moments again.

That the quality of overseas raiders makes the bargain buys a bit like the boys fishing with a handline trying to match a trawler with giant casting nets.

The Cup is craving one of these stories.

For all the hype about Gai Waterhouse and her endless crusade for Cup glory, some people find cheering for Gai as exciting as barracking for the Commonwealth Bank.

Generally the spring carnival rolls along to the theme of the Midnight Oil line — the rich get richer, the poor get the picture.

Racing needed this type of sugar shot, something to buck the trend.

The sport is built on big dreams. If you operated on bottom line cost basis you never bother even putting your hand up at an auction.

Mega-rich Lloyd Williams has six horses in the Cup. There are Sheiks from Dubai, billionaire English businessmen in there as well.

The bloodlines are getting purer and the battlers rarer by the year. If you approach a Melbourne trainer asking for a qualified Melbourne Cup horse for next year, expect to pay $1 million.

How the Melbourne Cup could do with another Wendy Green.

The Darwin schoolteacher became a national celebrity when her $12000 purchase Rogan Josh won the 1999 Melbourne Cup.

A natural storyteller, she has dined out on the win ever since, even writing a book about her year as a Cup winner called Wendy In Wonderland.

She once got a standing ovation doing a guest speaking gig in Melbourne when she said “I just hate the thought of the Melbourne Cup disappearing up some Sheik’s skirt."

The impact of her story was so great that several children in the Northern Territory were called Rogan Josh, including one she christened with champagne on her drive back from Melbourne.

There will be no Wendy’s this year — but at least we had an Andy.

Polanski

Melbourne Cup

Polanski

Polanski