Cupful of woes for Dettori

14 April 2012

Hopes of a first British success in Australia's most famous race, the Tooheys New Melbourne Cup, ended in the early hours of this morning when the heavily- backed 11- 2 favourite Mamool, ridden by Frankie Dettori, trailed in last of the 23 runners behind locally-trained winner Makybe Diva.

The victorious six-year-old mare, trained by David Hall and ridden by Glen Boss, took command with a telling burst of speed halfway up the home straight and refused to be denied as 40-1 outsider, She's Archie, challenged inside the final furlong. Makybe Diva prevailed by just over a length at odds of 7-1.

Jardines Lookout and Darryll Holland, also sent off at 40-1, fared best of the British challengers, snatching third place from Pentastic right on the line.

Fellow British raider Hugs Dancer put up a creditable effort to finish ninth but Mamool's stablemate, Millstreet, could only manage 21st place.

The winner was given a copybook ride by an elated Boss, who was riding his first Melbourne Cup winner at the seventh attempt just over a year after a serious back and neck injury placed his career in jeopardy.

"He said: "My whole body is tingling. Until you win one yourself you just can't describe what it's like to win this race, but I had the perfect run and it was like it was meant to be."

"Everywhere I went the gaps just kept coming for me, and this mare just made me feel like I was in the zone today."

A downcast Dettori commented: "I was going okay but at the 600 metre mark he dropped his bundle." Mamool's trainer, Newmarket-based Saeed Bin Suroor, added: "I was disappointed with both our horses. We expected better than this. I have to check the horses and we'll see if there is anything wrong."

Glorious sunshine greeted a packed crowd of over 100,000 at Flemington racecourse as a field of 23 including four British challengers and the Irish raider Holy Orders faced the starter at just after four o'clock this morning.

Holy Orders never threatened to land a blow, but Jardines Lookout and Hugs Dancer both had every chance had they been good enough.

So did Mamool and Millstreet, but the way that both horses capitulated to come home last and second last came as a serious blow to Godolphin at the end of what has been a chequered season for Sheikh Mohammed's globetrotting operation.

Irish trainer Dermot Weld, who saddled Vintage Crop to win the Cup in 1993 and followed up with Media Puzzle last year, remains the only European to land the race that stops a nation.

Weld wasn't represented this time but addressed the issue of what it takes to land the prize during last week's Breeders' Cup meeting in California.

"You need a special horse to win a Melbourne Cup," he said.

"It takes a horse with speed and class and the ability to cope with a gruelling battle, and those sort just don't come along every day."

They certainly don't. Makybe Diva's owner Tony Santic, who tried without success to sell Makybe Diva to England early in her career, supplemented the first prize of £985,000 by backing his winner to land almost £200,000 at all prices down from 50-1 and told of how he had "been dreaming about this moment for years."

Santic earns his living in South Australia by running a company specialising in tuna fishing.

Today's race was by far the biggest catch of his career, but for Godolphin the Melbourne Cup remains the one that keeps getting away.

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