L-plate to Cox Plate for Shamus Award as colt does the unexpected and wins Cox Plate
QUEENSLAND fans of popular grey Cole Diesel may well have been wondering just what might have been in the moments after yesterday’s Cox Plate.
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QUEENSLAND fans of popular grey Cole Diesel may well have been wondering just what might have been in the moments after yesterday’s Cox Plate.
Shamus Award made history yesterday when he became the first maiden to ever win the Australasian weight-for-age championship, fending off a late lunge by Happy Trails.
The 2013 Moonee Valley Racing Club committee is clearly not as heavy handed as its 1989 counterpart.
That year, Cole Diesel was famously balloted out of the Cox Plate despite having won the Group 1 Toorak Handicap and Caulfield Cup on the previous two Saturdays.
This year, the committee wasn’t unanimous on the inclusion of Shamus Award, but he ran and the race now has its first maiden winner.
The last such runner to contest the race was Oxberry Way, which ran last as a 200-1 shot in Red Anchor’s 1984 romp.
A Cox Plate-eve suspension was a million miles away for champion apprentice Chad Schofield as he delivered trainer Danny O’Brien the second jewel in Melbourne racing’s holy trinity.
O’Brien said this spring had gone totally against script until the seven days leading into yesterday’s $3million showpiece.
“It hasn’t gone to plan. We would have loved to win the Guineas and be coming here as favourite,” he said.
“A couple of things went against us. He could have easily been a Guineas winner and a Cox Plate winner but we’re happy to take the Cox Plate.
“We were always wanting to run and we were going to be last into the field. We had a bit of good fortune with Atlantic Jewel coming out.
“Not much has gone right this spring, but it’s all come together the last seven days.
“These opportunities don’t come along very often and you have to make the most of them.”
O’Brien has now ticked off two of Melbourne’s majors, having won the 2007 Caulfield Cup with Master O’Reilly.
Schofield was anointed stable rider for Hall of Fame trainer David Hayes last season and his neatly judged ride up front showed why he is so highly regarded by so many.
Schofield thanked Hayes and his father, champion jockey Glyn Schofield, for the opportunity to be a major player in Australian racing.
“Dad’s the most influential person in my life and I have modelled myself on him,” he said.
“I had my heart set on being a jockey for as long as I can remember.
“I spoke to dad about the race and he thought it would be a good idea to grab the race by the scruff of the neck and be in the first three.
“In the last 50m he’d had enough. At the 200m I thought I was home, but he put in a few short ones late and when Dwayne Dunn (Happy Trails) saluted, my heart sunk.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. I’ve won a Cox Plate. It’s fantastic.”
Fiorente’s rider Blake Shinn said he thought he had the winner’s measure at the 600m, but weights and respective runs in transit told late.
“He toughed it out really good, but that weight just kicked in,” he said.
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