The Cup: Another local winner? It won’t be a surprise, baby

The defending champion jockey, Craig Williams, has ditched the defending champion horse, Vow And Declare.

trainer Paul Preusker with his Melbourne Cup runner Surprise Baby at his Horsham property. Picture: Micheal Klein

Heard a tremendous radio interview on the weekend. Insightful and revealing. A riveting Melbourne Cup preview that finished with the broadcaster saying, “And that was Surprise Baby … ”

Which was quite the surprise, baby. I thought bloody hell, finally, a Melbourne Cup racehorse that could talk. Finally, a Q&A worth transcribing. Finally, form analysis and scene-setting that went beyond wild guesswork and copying Ray Thomas’s tips. Finally, after 160 years of fumbling in the dark for the winner, some proper information for us poor mug punters.

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Scuttlebutt from the stables. The business of the barn. All straight from the six-year-old gelding’s mouth. Groundbreaking stuff. Give him a newspaper column. Equine Confidential. Can he type? Doesn’t matter. None of us can. Get Steve Crawley on the line. There’s a Fox Sports show in this. Turf 360. Ash Gardner has been praised for teaching herself to paint increasingly brilliant Indigenous art during lockdown, and Surprise Baby deserved just as much credit for mastering the English language. We knew Paul Preusker was a decent trainer out at Horsham, but he’d outdone himself here.

“And that was Surprise Baby …” So I went back to the start of the interview, baby. Surprise Baby said he’d been studying video of last year’s race. Some horse! Surprise Baby said the Cup had to stay in Australia. Patriotic horse! Surprise Baby said it was Australia versus the world at Flemington. Hype-building horse! Surprise Baby said it would not matter too much that this Melbourne Cup would be run without thousands of darlings, drunkards, desperados, high-flyers, down-and-outers and every other element of society who screamed themselves hoarse for the Australian horse Vow And Declare last year, and the Australian jockey, Craig Williams, and the Australian trainer, Danny O’Brien, all of whom had given such an emphatic “don’t argue” to the foreign entrants while Williams’s daughters skipped in delight — we won the Cup! — and his father quietly wept near the flower beds in the mounting yard.

Surprise Baby said he still got goosebumps when he viewed replays of last year’s race, especially the call of Matt Hill: “Vow And Declare’s kicked! Vow And Declare’s won it for Australia! They’re on top of the world!” But then the interviewer clarified. “And that was Surprise Baby … well, it wasn’t Surprise Baby. It was his jockey, Craig Williams.” More’s the pity. Back to fumbling in the dark. Back to Ray Thomas’s tips. Williams wrapped it up by saying, “I know he’ll have the nation on his side, being a horse from Horsham. He’s a local horse so I’m pretty sure we’re going to have plenty of supporters trying to hold off this international contingent again.”

What a different scene this year. Nothing grand in the stands. Birdcage? No birds, no cage. No thunderous crowd roar when the pack heads for home. Williams has ditched Vow And Declare for Surprise Baby which, apart from being a bit of a surprise, baby, and apart from guaranteeing a filthy look from Vow And Declare at the gates — how could you? — proves the defending champion jockey doesn’t think the defending champion horse can go again.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, of course, because he changed my life,” Williams told ABC Grandstand of jumping ship. “He holds a place in my heart … but when you look at the handicapping conditions for the Melbourne Cup, he has to improve five kilos … everyone understands how much of a task that would be for him.”

A Cup win by Surprise Baby would not be that much of a surprise, baby. He trails only Anthony Van Dyck and Tiger Moth in betting. Williams said the “hairs on the back of my neck stand up” when he thinks about last year’s triumph.

“Not only was I born in Australia, I was born into a racing family,” Williams said. “All you’ve done as a kid is dream about winning the Melbourne Cup. To actually win it at my 16th attempt, on an Australian-bred horse, trained by an Australian in Danny O’Brien, I could get no greater satisfaction.”

Hugh Bowman is the best jockey never to win a Melbourne Cup now that Williams has moved off the mark. He’s aboard Anthony Van Dyck. Damien Oliver (Russian Camelot), Kerrin McEvoy (Tiger Moth) and Glen Boss (Sir Dragonet) are trying to join Bobby Lewis and Harry White as the Cup’s only four-time winning jockeys. Oliver ditched his tradition of wearing a suit to the races when the crowds disappeared. He wasn’t exactly in tracky daks and thongs but if he’s in a suit again on Tuesday, he might be in the mood for a proper day at the races.

On the loneliest of Melbourne Cups, Williams said: “There’s no doubt when it comes to carnival time, we’re entertainers, we’re sports people and we feed off the atmosphere. And there’s no greater atmosphere than the spring carnival and this week at HQ. The All-Star Mile meeting at Caulfield in March was the first time we didn’t have crowds at the races. It was quite eerie. Now we’re so used to it that it’s just the norm.”