Melbourne Cup 2015: Slow lane up Flemington straight could lead to mayhem in big race

A SLOW lane up the Flemington straight could cause mayhem in today’s $6.2 million Melbourne Cup.

Caulfield Cup Day

A SLOW lane up the Flemington straight could cause mayhem in today’s $6.2 million Melbourne Cup.

Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey inspected the track yesterday and declared the ground 10-14m out from the inside rail in the straight significantly inferior to the ground inside it.

The inside 10m was rated a Good 4, the 10m-14m section a Soft 6, and the ground out wider a Soft 5.

Leading trainer David Hayes, who has Criterion and Almoonqith in the Cup, said that could make for dangerous racing.

“If horses are not swooping wide early in the day, it could become a health and safety issue in the Cup,’’ Hayes said last night.

“If they can’t win out wide, which is where so many Cups have been won, then they are all going to try to get to the inside and the track will be as bad as it was on Derby Day.

“In a word, disappointing.’’

The Flemington track on Derby Day was widely criticised as heavily biased towards horses close to the inside rail.

Jockeys Sam Clipperton, Tommy Berry and Mitch Bell walk the track at Flemington.

Last night’s concession that the track was uneven will have 24 jockeys in the Cup desperate to get as close to the rail as they can.

It is possible the Cup will, as a consequence, be stamped by hard-luck stories, disadvantages to those who come wide and may be affected by a great deal of interference.

Jockey Ben Melham, who rides the well-fancied Our Ivanhowe, drawn in barrier 22, was stunned to hear of the slow lane last night.

“Wow, that’s really disappointing on the biggest day of the year,’’ he said.

“That’s going to make it extremely tough not just for my horse if the track races according to those ratings.’’

Bailey said the section of the track 10-14m wide of the rail had been softened up by track gallops from about 40 horses last Tuesday morning.

“So if you are outside 10m, you are not in the mix?” Des O’Keeffe, chief executive of the Victorian Jockeys’ Association, said last night.

“It seems concerning, especially in a Melbourne Cup where a large percentage of the horses would be wanting to come wider than 10m in the straight.

“You would imagine this would heighten concerns about interference and just messy riding and we already had four suspensions on a biased track on Saturday.’’

Horses drawn in outside barriers in the Cup are most likely to be disadvantaged if there is a bias against coming wide.

As well as Lee Freedman’s Our Ivanhowe, they include Gai Waterhouse’s Lexus Stakes winner Excess Knowledge (barrier 24), English stayer Big Orange (23) and Godolphin’s Hartnell (17).