The Melbourne Cup was run and won today. “So You Think” trained by the prodigious cup trainer Bart Cummings (he was aiming for his 13th win today), was an unbackable favourite all week and prior to the race. The 100,000 strong crowd always makes Melbourne Cup Day one of the most unique and envied race days around the world. Not only did todays race contain the best stayers in the land, a few foreign invaders lined up for the total $6 million in prize money. Not since Pharlap, had a horse won the Cox Plate twice and then the Melbourne Cup, so tough was So You Thinks challenge. Pundits and experts have been talking up the horse as one of the best of all time, if not the best. The 5 year old stallion is big, black, and flashy. The punters love him.
Today however was not to be, gallant in defeat he was. Four or five from the leaders all the way, he took them on in the straight and all were waiting for his famous kick that everyone said was unbeatable. Today though, it wasn’t. A wet track and untried at the distance of 3200m, he hit the front at the 600 meter mark. A foreign invader though, a horse just as flashy, with a massive stride, and black, was hot on his heels. The French trained and ridden, but Australian owned “Americain” was neck and neck with So You Think at the clock tower. He kept going and won by 2 and half lengths. The French had won a Melbourne Cup. Jockey Gerald Mosse described the horse as so easy to ride his grandmother could do the job, and made light of the fact that all he had to do at the clock tower was press the button. It was all over.
So the Melbourne Cup is over for another year, the race that truly stops a nation, and maybe now, the rest of the world as well.
Americain 1st, Maluckyday 2nd, So You Think 3rd.
| Finish | No. | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Weight | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 8 | AMERICAIN(11) | Gerald Mosse | Alain de Royer Dupre | 54.5 | 3-26.87 |
| 2nd | 24 | MALUCKYDAY(5) | Luke Nolen | Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes | 51.0 | 2.8L |
| 3rd | 3 | SO YOU THINK(2) | Steven Arnold | Bart Cummings | 56.0 | 3.3L |
| 4th | 4 | ZIPPING(15) | Nicholas Hall | Robert Hickmott | 55.5 | 5.0L |
| 5th | 12 | HARRIS TWEED(12) | Brad Rawiller | Murray & Bjorn Baker | 54.0 | 5.5L |
| 6th | 19 | HOLBERG(9) | Frankie Dettori | Saeed Bin Suroor | 53.5 | 6.3L |
| 7th | 13 | MANIGHAR(19) | Damien Oliver | Luca Cumani | 54.0 | 9.3L |
| 8th | 20 | PRECEDENCE(14) | James Winks | Bart Cummings | 53.5 | 9.4L |
| 9th | 5 | ILLUSTRIOUS BLUE(8) | Glen Boss | William J Knight | 55.0 | 10.9L |
| 10th | 6 | MR MEDICI(4) | Darren Beadman | Peter Ho | 55.0 | 12.1L |
| 11th | 23 | ONCE WERE WILD(10) | Jim Cassidy | Gai Waterhouse | 51.5 | 12.4L |
| 12th | 9 | TOKAI TRICK(3) | Shinji Fujita | Kenji Nonaka | 54.5 | 12.7L |
| 13th | 7 | SHOOT OUT(16) | Corey Brown | John Wallace | 55.0 | 13.5L |
| 14th | 15 | MONACO CONSUL(13) | Craig Williams | Michael Moroney | 54.0 | 15.2L |
| 15th | 14 | MASTER O’REILLY(17) | Vlad Duric | Danny O’Brien | 54.0 | 18.0L |
| 16th | 2 | CAMPANOLOGIST(18) | Kerrin McEvoy | Saeed Bin Suroor | 56.0 | 18.5L |
| 17th | 16 | PROFOUND BEAUTY(21) | Patrick Smullen | Dermot K Weld | 54.0 | 19.0L |
| 18th | 1 | SHOCKING(23) | Michael Rodd | Mark Kavanagh | 57.0 | 19.1L |
| 19th | 21 | RED RULER(7) | Mark Du Plessis | John Sargent | 53.5 | 20.1L |
| 20th | 10 | BUCCELLATI(20) | Steven King | Tony Noonan | 54.0 | 23.1L |
| 21st | 22 | LINTON(22) | Brett Prebble | Robert Hickmott | 52.0 | 35.1L |
| 22nd | 17 | ZAVITE(6) | Michael Walker | Anthony Cummings | 54.0 | 47.1L |
| FF | 11 | DESCARADO(1) | Nash Rawiller | Gai Waterhouse | 54.0 |
