Melbourne Cup:Godolphin have vowed to continue their quest for Emirates Melbourne Cup glory after having to settle for second once again in 2009, behind the Mark Kavanagh-trained Shocking at Flemington this morning.
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor has saddled Central Park (1999) and Give The Slip (2001) for minor honours in the last 10 years and Crime Scene provided another runner-up placing as he went down by three-quarters of a length to Shocking.
One-time Michael Stoute inmate Warringah set a slow early pace but as he began to flag at the top of the straight, Kerrin McEvoy swept through on Crime Scene to take it up.
However, Corey Brown was sitting on his heels aboard Shocking and delivered a perfectly-timed challenge in the closing stages.
Although Crime Scene made a good battle of it, Shocking, who overcame an unfavourable draw in 22, had too much petrol in the tank and pulled clear at the finish.
“We travelled three deep with no cover. I know he had no weight but he did tough it out really well,” said Brown. “I got probably a good half a length on the second horse and then I thought he was going to fight back and beat me, but my bloke stuck to his guns.”
Kavanagh has had to deal with some disappointments this year, with stable stars Maldivian and Cats Whisker suffering injuries, while his Victoria Derby favourite was scratched on the day of the race and Cox Plate hope Whobegotyou finished out of the places.
However, Kavanagh was confident of a good performance from Shocking after his win in the Lexus Stakes at Flemington just four days ago.
“There was a lot of talk that Shocking couldn’t win today because he had the luck of a good rails run on Saturday and he needed to improve a lot because he was laying in,” explained the trainer.
“He was laying in his races because he was tired, because he was fat inside and he wasn’t ready yet.
“Shocking’s a stallion and he takes a bit of racing to come right and we knew Saturday would top him off.”
Bin Suroor was satisfied with his stable’s efforts but insisted Godolphin would get it right sooner or later.
“The horse did really very well. Before the race I was really happy with him and that gave us the confidence to run him,” he said. “The blinkers made a big difference to him really — working on Saturday he was more focused than ever.
“This is our third time in the Melbourne Cup. We have run second (and) one day we are going to win.”
Brown, who has endured a rollercoaster career, was gaining compensation after just losing out by a nose aboard Luca Cumani’s Bauer last year.
“I’ve had a fair few hiccups in my racing career. Three years ago, I ran into a bit of trouble in Hong Kong (when suspended for six months for testing positive to cocaine) and I was told I would never get back to the heights that I did, but to come here today to win the Cup has proven them all wrong.”
The rider was originally booked to ride Vigor but after that horse was controversially excluded from the field on Saturday night, Kavanagh allowed him to step in for the ride.
Mourilyan, who was trained by Gary Moore earlier in the year, came with a late surge to claim third on his first start since returning to the care of South African trainer Herman Brown.
His rider Glyn Schofield said: “This horse kept improving, kept on bursting through.
“I tried to follow Kerrin when he came out, but when I went for him at the end, there wasn’t much there.”
Master O’Reilly finished fourth for the second successive year, while 2008 victor Viewed suffered a luckless passage and came home seventh.
Ian Williams’ Munsef and Cumani’s Basaltico were barely sighted, finishing 12th and 18th of the 23 runners respectively.
Munsef’s rider Zac Purton commented: “(It was a) bit disappointing because I had a good run.
“I was trailing the second horse, I had the winner outside me. Then at about the 800-metre (mark), Nick Hall (rider of eighth C’est La Guerre) came out under my neck and put me out of the race.”
Danny Nikolic pointed to the lack of early speed as a possible reason for Basaltico’s lacklustre effort.
He said: “He struggled. He had a nice run, they went very slow and he was a beaten horse a long way out.
“I was in trouble at the 1200m and at the half-mile when they made their runs, I couldn’t tack onto any of them.”