Melbourne Cup 2018: The two biggest truths from the race that stops the nation
THERE are two truths that shine through at the Melbourne Cup every year: but the common factor in both is money. Without a decent wad of cash you’re wasting your time — but money alone is not enough, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.
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EVERY year the Melbourne Cup proves two things — money can’t buy it and money can buy it.
Without a decent wad of cash you are essentially wasting your time but cash alone is never enough.
You need the right horse with the right man with the right plan.
The unofficial president of the “money can’t buy it’’ club is Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai whose cash supply is as bottomless as the oil wells he owns at home.
The oil rich Sheik has spent 20 years and $1.1 billion chasing the Cup and is yet to crack the code.
He may own 200 cars and thousands of horses scattered across the globe but he remains the Cup’s biggest loser.
His private trainer Saeed Bin Suroor has delivered the Cup runner-up three times, with Central Park (1999), Give The Slip (2001) and Crime Scene (2009), but never has he raised the trophy.
When his team loses — as they do each year — you can see it in their demeanour how much it frustrates them.
Often it’s hard to tell who has the longest face in the mounting yard after the race — the horse or their strapper.
Melbourne’s “Mr Moneybags” Lloyd Williams, by contrast, proved that dollars plus sense can produce a spectacular jackpot.
He calls the Cup his glorious obsession and he has won it six times, starting with Just A Dash in 1981 and most recently with Rekindling last year.
Along the way there has been plenty of dud buys, aborted plans, bad luck and narrow failures but forensic planning has seen him plane down a formula that keeps him in the hunt every year.
In the 26 years since Just A Dash won Williams his first Cup he had just one other success, yet in the 10 years since then he has won it four times.
“I became obsessed with this race when I was about eight,’’ Williams said. “I’m a proud Melburnian and the Cup has been very much part of my life.’’
Williams could add another trophy to his cluttered cabinet this year with Yucatan, who stormed into Cup contention with a mighty win in the Ladbrokes Herbert Power Stakes and is set to be the shortest Melbourne Cup favourite since Makybe Diva in 2005.
For Sheik Mohammed, the frustration of having nothing but a soggy doughnut to show for his Cup spend is accentuated by the fact that his brother, Sheik Hamdan, celebrated two Cup wins with At Talaq and Jeune — with far less representation.
Godolphin’s 1189 runners worldwide earned $17 million in the 2017-18 season … but no Melbourne Cup.
Bin Suroor’s Caulfield Cup winner Best Solution, James Cummings’ Avilius and Charlie Appleby’s Cross Counter will give Godolphin a solid shot at cracking their duck this year.
When Sheik Mohammed was a schoolboy he was taught how to live in peace with the creatures of the desert environment in which he lived.
He learnt to pick up a scorpion with his hands without being stung but he was bitten by something that stayed in his system — the racing bug, a costly obsession which has delivered him almost every trophy he has wanted except the one he craves most.
Originally published as Melbourne Cup 2018: The two biggest truths from the race that stops the nation