Racing: Yeats could finish only seventh in the Melbourne Cup as Japanese trainer Katsuhiko Sumii sent out Delta Blues to lead home a one-two at Flemington Park today.
The 17-1 shot just held stablemate and 5-1 joint-favourite Pop Rock to notch a landmark victory for Sumii and jockey Yasunari Iwata in the Group One contest.
Maybe Better (9-1) claimed third for the home team while Jamie Poulton's 200-1 outsider Land'N Stars fared best of the British raiders, storming down the home straight under John Egan to take fifth place.
Iwata was always prominent aboard Delta Blues, disputing the early lead before letting Zabeat set the pace in the two-mile feature.
The Aidan O'Brien-trained Yeats was slow to break for Kieren Fallon but he quickly made up lost ground and was settled in eighth place while Land'N Stars and the Luca Cumani-trained Glistening were in the pack.
Fallon steadily worked his way through and moved up to take second from Delta Blues around six furlongs out before hitting the front turning into the straight.
However, the top weight quickly found himself swallowed up as Iwata conjured a fantastic run from Delta Blues to take the lead around a furlong and half out.
Damien Oliver threw down a serious challenge aboard Pop Rock in the final half-furlong but he narrowly lost out in a driving finish.
Yeats started from stall four and although Fallon's mount suffered some interference which saw him pushed wide on the first bend, the rider offered no real excuses and believes Yeats was just not at his best.
"I am disappointed really, he didn't finish off like I thought he would,. The race was run pretty much the way I expected it to be," said Fallon.
"I thought I should have gone from a mile out because they didn't go very quick.
"You never know, you always think 'what if I did something different?', but I was disappointed. I thought I was in the right place and just thought he would lengthen better."
Tom Magnier, son of owners John and Sue Magnier, thought the tempo of the race had played against Yeats.
"Kieren gave the horse a great ride and it was the race not working out the way we wanted - the pace didn't suit us," Magnier said.
"We were just going to sit and wait but the pace was too slow, Kieren gave a peach of a ride but we carried a lot of weight. The horse is fine, it was just the way the race was run."