Andrew Rule: Verry Elleegant’s rise to glory an unusual story
There is a story behind every Melbourne Cup winner and the story behind Verry Elleegant is as unusual as the spelling of her name.
Andrew Rule
Don't miss out on the headlines from Andrew Rule. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IF James McDonald is not the best jockey in the world this spring, and Chris Waller is not the best trainer, then Verry Elleegant might just be the best staying mare.
They are all, of course, almost Australians … the sort who just happened to be born on the other side of the Tasman before heading to the wide brown land.
Each of them had well and truly made their name before they combined on Tuesday to puncture the fairytale rise of Incentivise, who won nine races straight before going into the Melbourne Cup as the shortest-priced favourite since Phar Lap 90 years ago.
Between them, they held out the brilliant overseas galloper Spanish Mission, who ran third in a race that left most of the field far behind in front of 10,000 delighted fans on a picturebook spring day.
After a decade of the Cup being dominated by imported horses, it was a day for the Anzacs of racing. The great Aussie hope Incentivise might still prove to be the best galloper from Queensland since Bernborough in the 1940s … it just might not be over the Melbourne Cup distance of 3200m against horses of the calibre of Verry Elleegant and the handsome Spanish Mission.
Comeback jockey Brett Prebble appeared to ride Incentivise as extravagantly as if he were unbeatable. It seemed a good plan until Verry Elleegant burst away from the pack with a display of the superiority that has now won her 10 Group 1 races and $14m in stakes. Until that moment, it had been Prebble’s spring.
But Tuesday belonged to McDonald and Waller, the transplanted Kiwi who showed his mettle as a trainer by guiding the heroine Winx to 33 straight wins.
Waller revealed he waited until the last minute to confirm Verry Elleegant’s place in the race.
“I just didn’t want to run her, but I couldn’t find a reason not to. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
After watching the race, a tearful Waller said: “I didn’t think it was possible to win it, but when she hit the front with 300m to go, it was pretty good to watch.”
As for part-owners Brae Sokolski and Ossie Kheir and their happy crew of fellow travellers, they couldn’t lose.
They bought a half-share of Incentivise after his first four wins in Queensland, the same way they’d picked up a share of Verry Elleegant when she showed superstar potential back in New Zealand.
Reverse the finishing order and Sokolski would still have been on the podium accepting the Cup.
McDonald – “J-Mac” to an army of punters who follow him – has bounced back from brushes with the rules of racing in a way that lesser talents might not.
He rides with the trapeze artist balance of a Glen Boss, the cool horsemanship of Hugh Bowman and the strength of Mick Dittman, and is at the peak of his physical strength and nerve.
Proof of McDonald’s gifts is that Waller and other shrewd trainers are always keen to put him on their horses, which is why he rode a treble on Derby Day.
McDonald was full of praise for the champion mare.
“I can’t believe what’s just happened. I love her to bits,” he said.
“She’s been so good to me. I can safely say she is a champion now … I was blowing kisses to her the whole way.”
Prebble has rightly been called one of the best riders in the world – by none other than English legend Frankie Dettori – but McDonald outfoxed him by waiting until he got the chance to ambush the tiring leader with a late charge.
It was a powerful win but, in the words of caller Matt Hill, Incentivise didn’t lose many admirers in one of the fastest-run Cups since the Bart Cummings-trained Kingston Rule scorched along a rock hard track in 1990 to win in record time of 3:16.3.
There is a story behind every winner and the story behind Verry Elleegant is as unusual as the spelling of her name. The once cranky filly – who presented perfectly before the race – has put the finishing touch to a rags-to-riches story for her sire, the once obscure stallion Zed.
Zed is well bred but was injured as a young horse so did not get to prove himself on the track, and started life as a cheap stallion on the unpretentious Glenwilliam Stud near Taranaki, in New Zealand. Run by the Corcoran family, it is where the great Melbourne and Caulfield cups winner Doriemus – and Winx’s mother Vegas Showgirl – were bred. But the astonishing rise of Zed tops the lot.
Several seasons ago he was regarded as so uncommercial that he was banished to a remote sheep station to sire stock horses out of draught horse mares. But when his thoroughbred progeny started to win races, he was allowed back to Glenwilliam, where he is now the star of the show at an age when he is old enough to vote, drive and drink.
If horses could talk, old Zed might tell you he feels like Cathy Freeman’s dad when she won the race of her life at the Sydney Olympics. And Incentivise might tell you to watch out for him next time.
That’s racing.
More Coverage
Former police boss fires up over ‘missing guns’
Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Kel Glare has raised questions over the apparent disappearance of up to 64 firearms seized by the force.
Tough but never mean: Beloved Flemington horseman at the final furlong
Australia will lose one of its few remaining true originals when Flemington’s longest-serving clerk of the course John “Patto” Patterson passes the ultimate final post.