Melbourne Cup 2014: Cheers, tears for champion horses
THE running of the 154th Melbourne Cup was a day of triumph tinged with tragedy as a jubilant Flemington crowd cheered home Protectionist.
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THE running of the 154th Melbourne Cup was a day of triumph tinged with tragedy.
A jubilant Flemington crowd of 100,794 cheered home Protectionist, the first German horse to win Australia’s most famous race.
But the euphoria for one team of foreign Cup raiders was matched by devastation for another, after Japanese race favourite and Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti faded on the track, and later collapsed and died.
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And Araldo, who finished seventh, was put down several hours after the race after suffering an injury to his right hind leg from kicking a fence on taking fright while returning to scale.
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MELBOURNE CUP 2014: As it happened
Victorious German stayer Protectionist had never been to Flemington, having just nine starts to his name, and started at odds of $8.50.
But it mattered little as he galloped clear of the field in the final stages of the 3200m, disappointing Red Cadeaux, who finished second for the third time in four years, and Kiwi outsider Who Shot Thebarman.
Aboard was champion jockey Ryan Moore, who added the Cup trophy to his win in this year’s Cox Plate on Adelaide.
“It’s very special,” he said of his win in the $6.2 million race. “It’s one of the greatest races in the world.”
The forecast high of 29C hit Flemington shortly after 4pm but in typical kaleidoscopic Melbourne fashion, brilliant sunshine alternated with rain and strong wind that buffeted hats and skirts.
Among the VIPs at the course were Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Tour de France winner Cadel Evans, former Test cricket captain Ricky Ponting, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, Premier Denis Napthine, and tennis ace Lleyton Hewitt.
Soccer great Mark Viduka was enjoying his first Cup Day at the course.
The former English Premier League star said the event made him proud to call Melbourne home.
“I always wanted to come, because everybody (overseas) always asked me if I’d ever come to a Melbourne Cup,” Viduka said.
By 5pm, police had evicted just 10 people, nine for alcohol-related offences. One minor had tried to buy alcohol. A couple were arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
Superintendent Cindy Millan said the crowd had been in good spirits and well-behaved — though the fashion police would have been busy with “quite a few fashion crimes”.
NSW and Victorian punters bet a combined $86.9 million on the race, compared with just over $90 million last year.
One punter with online bookmaker Sportingbet collected $221,000 after a $26,000 bet on Protectionist.
Others weren’t so lucky.
One lost $25,000 on the ill-fated Admire Rakti.
That horse, which carried the top weight of 58.5kg, had run well early before tiring. He collapsed back at his stable.
Racing Victoria head vet Brian Stewart said the cause of death was yet to be determined but the “circumstances of the horse’s passing are very rare”.
He said the horse’s connections were “naturally saddened by their tragic loss”.
DAGS, NAGS AND RATBAGS
IT was a Cup day as extraordinary and unpredictable as any other.
The race that stops the nation pulled 100,974 punters to Flemington, and there were many weird and wonderful fashions and great stories among them.
While fascinators flittered in the breeze, normality was thrown to the wind. Dapper gentlemen cracked open beers before midday and glamorous girls weaved barefoot between picnic rugs.
Grandmother Margaret Bellden, 84, could lay a legitimate claim to being Australia’s biggest Melbourne Cup fanatic — this year attending her 50th Cup.
She was at Flemington in 1950 when a 23-year-old Bart Cummings had his first real experience with the iconic cup as a strapper for his dad’s win via Comic Court. And she has seen Cummings win 12 since.
“I love the atmosphere, I love the racing, I love the fashion, I love the horses. It’s changed over the years but it’s still wonderful,” she said.
Celebrities posed for photos in the Birdcage but punters posing for selfies with each other proved the real party was on the lawn.
While the women were radiant, Kiwi Chris Wood and his mates drew the masses in their sunflower suits cut from curtains.
“We’re a marker. People know where to find their friends because of us. We add to the colour of the atmosphere. Everyone has been coming to say hi and take photos,” said Chris, from Upper Hutt.
He said his crew had been crossing the Tasman every two years for the past decade to celebrate the Cup. “It wouldn’t be a Melbourne Cup without us,” he said.
Deslys Dubois and Greg Millard backed their locally bought blow-up horses against the 11 foreign raiders competing for Cup glory — giving Ms Dubois the perfect alibi for flat shoes.
An all-girl cast of superheroes posed heroically.
“Our outfits took five minutes to prepare and we’re getting all the attention,”said Dandenong Wonder Woman Kelly Johnsen.
Twitter: @rolfep
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