Murphy’s Delight gives Jim Byrne his third Queensland Cup success

JIM Byrne was confident of winning the Queensland Cup for a third time on Saturday and followed his plan of staying out of trouble to perfection on Murphy’s Delight.

Jim Byrne landed his third Queensland Cup when Murphy’s Delight won the feature event at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Picture: Tim Marsden

JIM Byrne was supremely confident of winning the Queensland Cup for a third time on Saturday and followed his plan of staying out of trouble on Murphy’s Delight to round out another successful Queensland carnival for the Chris Waller stable.

In the meantime, Byrne kept his premiership hopes alive by matching strides with Jeff Lloyd as the pair rode half the card at the Eagle Farm meeting.

Byrne had won the Cup on Insecure (1998) and Iggi Pop (2014) but never went into the race more confident of winning than he did on Saturday.

“It’s very pleasing to win this race for a third time,” he said. “It’s great to get a ride for a stable like that (Waller) and it’s great to win a race for that stable.

“Looking at the race, I knew there were only a handful of them that would handle the ground and then only a couple that would see out the trip, so my main concern was just giving him a nice run because I knew the horse would do the rest.

“In a race like that, you know the others are going to knock up so I didn’t want to get behind any of the slow ones.”

Pop ‘N’ Scotch again gave a huge sight over the 3200m, but Byrne said he was always confident of getting his down, thus relegating the Liam Birchley-trained rival to the minor place stall for the third year running in this race.

Waller’s stable representative Joanne Taylor said Murphy’s Delight had earned a well-deserved spell, having raced 10 times since resuming off a 13-month break in February.

“He just takes things in his stride and doesn’t get too worked up in his trackwork. That’s why he can handle the racing he has,” she said.

Murphy’s Delight ploughed through the heavy conditions to win the Queensland Cup. Picture: Tim Marsden

Byrne’s hot run of form continued into the next race when he landed a last-stride win on One Inch Punch for Toby Edmonds after Monster Of Energy had thwarted his challenge for most of the straight.

But Lloyd, who had won earlier on Beckham, matched Byrne’s double when Where’s Thatdragon continued the hot streak for the Kelly Doughty stable later in the day.

Like Byrne, Lloyd is pulling out all stops to win the premiership and feels his 2.5 win lead is not enough yet. “Nothing’s a good lead when Jim’s riding like he did the other day (with four winners),” Lloyd said. “It’s been a great contest all year with the three of us.

“Jimmy Orman has been with us the whole way and it was just unlucky for him that he got a suspension at a bad time. But hats off to him for the season he’s had.”

Doughty said Where’s Thatdragon had only had the one trial, but her confidence grew when the rain came. “She relishes the ground and Jeff got her into a really good rhythm,” Doughty said.

Flambe completed a two-track double for the stable at the Gold Coast on Saturday, with Doughty having now prepared seven winners from her past 21 runners.

Rails hug does trick for Wolfgram

TRAVIS Wolfgram had seven Eagle Farm rides at acceptance time, reduced to four after scratchings and then only two following late withdrawals, but still managed to salvage something from Saturday with a rails-hugging ride on Meteorologist.

Wolfgram, who made his name in Queensland but is now based in NSW with David Pfeiffer, made the call with trainer Marcus Wilson to hug the rails on Meteorologist and it was a winning move.

“Nothing had been up there since Stradbroke Day, so I had an idea going on the fresh ground in there might be the way to go and it worked out,” Wolfgram said. “It was looking pretty ugly for most of the day, with horses coming out, but this makes the long day worthwhile now.”

Wilson said because Meteorologist was such a big horse, he had been waiting a long time to get him back to Eagle Farm and he hoped to replicate Saturday’s success in coming weeks.

“He’s been a great horse for us. He only cost $8000 at the QTIS sale as a yearling and he’s been a good horse all the way through,” he said.

Meteorologist rounded out an excellent day for bookies, paying upwards of $32 on all totes.

Originally published as Murphy’s Delight gives Jim Byrne his third Queensland Cup success