Thanks Mate
Jockey Corey Brown gives Rekindling a well-deserved hug after the pair raced to victory in yesterday’s Melbourne Cup.
IT was one of the coldest Cup days in history but millionaire Lloyd Williams was running hot.
Williams entered rare air as the most successful owner in Melbourne Cup history on an Irish outsider in the race that stops a nation yesterday.
The former businessman notched his sixth Melbourne Cup triumph when Rekindling ($16.30) flashed home to deliver Williams his sec- ond straight consecutive triumph in Australia’s great race.
The result grew Williams’ bulging trophy cabinet and rewarded comeback kid Corey Brown, who rode Rekindling to the first Melbourne Cup win by a threeyear-old since 1941.
Williams, who had six feature race runners, watched in delight as Rekindling and Johannes Vermeer earned him a Melbourne Cup quinella ahead of Max Dynamite, a year after he celebrated victory with Almandin.
“An absolute dream,” he said. “I am so thrilled ... it’s terribly exciting.
“I can’t put it into words to be perfectly honest.”
Brown, celebrating his second Cup victory and a return to glory after injury and a former drug ban, also struggled to contain his joy but was quick to share the thrill with his wife Kylie and three daughter.
“It is so special, I have my family with me and the girls are old enough to come to the races and enjoy it,’’ he said. “I’m lost for words.”
Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien, just 24, delivered a Cup winner in fashion that should have his legendary famous father Aidan looking over his shoulder.
His dad this year set a world record for 21 Group One winners but was yesterday resigned to second pegging as his son stole the limelight in the 157th running of the Melbourne Cup.
A crowd of 90,536, down on last year’s Cup attendance of 97,479, was treated to thrills, spills and four seasons in one day.
When gates opened at 8.30am, it was 11C, rain was tumbling and winds were whipping. But by the time main race rolled around, the skies had cleared and the stage was set for an Aussie sporting tradition rivalled only by the AFL Grand Final.