Craig Williams shines in Geelong Cup win, while favourite suffers tendon injury

Champion hoop Craig Williams is a smooth operator whenever in front of a camera so it was only fitting he piloted seven-year-old international arrival Onesmoothoperator to victory in a dramatic Geelong Cup that saw the favourite Unusual Legacy pulled up 200 metres into the race by his jockey Joao Moreira.

It was Williams’ sixth win in the traditional two-mile lead-in at Geelong, with the horse too good for the locals, opening up from the 200-metre mark to destroy his opposition with only the Ciaron Maher-trained Interpretation making any ground in the final furlong.

Craig Williams won his sixth Melbourne Cup on the International runner OnesmoothoperatorCredit: Racing Photos via Getty Images

The Chris Waller-trained Unusual Legacy was loaded on to the horse ambulance and taken to the vet clinic, where he was found to have suffered a right fore tendon injury.

So impressed by the win, Williams immediately put himself in the frame to ride the Brian Ellison-trained horse in the Melbourne Cup saying it was “likely” he would ride him.

For the veteran hoop, who won The Everest on Bella Nipotina on Saturday, the victory was business as usual, but for the connections of the UK-based gelding it was anything but.

Trainer Ellison, a former jockey who trains in North Yorkshire, has never had much luck in his quest to win a Melbourne Cup.

Onesmoothoperator’s powerful finish in Geelong.Credit: Racing.com

“I’ve been cursed a few times,” Ellison admitted.

His first horse to gain a start, Carte Diamond, had to be scratched way back in 2005 when he crashed through a running rail during track work at Flemington and suffered deep lacerations just a week after finishing ninth in the Caulfield Cup.

Then in 2011, he had two starters, Moyenne Corniche and Saptapadi, but they both drew outside and could not finish closer than 18th and 19th behind the winner Dunaden.

However, the grinning Ellison said those experiences were in the past as he declared Onesmoothoperator better than his previous entrants.

The Brian Ellison trained-stayer is based at WerribeeCredit: Getty Images

He would not have made the trip otherwise as he already knows the risks from bitter experience.

“I’ve been here a few times and had a few bits of bad luck, but this horse has been brilliant,” Ellison said.

“I said to Craig [Williams], ‘He’s not your normal stayer, he’s got lots of speed.’

“He’s got a good turn of foot and [Williams] gave him a great ride.

“You’ve just got to put your head down and keep checking on. Everybody has bad luck. So anyway, I know I’ve got a good horse.”

The horse’s owner Patrick Doyle – also from Yorkshire – joked he had come to Australia as the tight-lipped Ellison’s interpreter, and described the win as his biggest. If he could win the Melbourne Cup, he would not know what to think.

“You can’t take anything for granted at all,” Doyle said.

“This year he has been on song, he really has.”

That they rated Onesmoothoperator good enough to bring him out to race on grass tracks, given his only previous wins were on synthetic tracks, is testament to the respect they have for his ability and their constant hope that the grass will one day prove greener. They took heart from finishing four lengths behind last year’s Caulfield-Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight back in 2022 and decided you only live once.

Three International entrants – Media Puzzle in 2002, Americain in 2010 and Dunaden – won the Melbourne Cup after victory in the Geelong Cup so no one was discounting Onesmoothoperator’s chances of joining that honour roll.

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