Going all the way alongside Runaway

WE love a local success story.

Geelong people have a tendency to become proudly parochial when one of our own succeeds on the national stage.

From Cadel Evans to Guy Pearce, we love to follow the journeys of our high achievers and feel like we are celebrating their successes right along with them.

In horse racing, there is no bigger stage than the Melbourne Cup, and this Tuesday Geelong residents will be taking plenty of interest in the fortunes of locally owned and bred Runaway.

Runaway’s story is as Geelong as the Cats and the Ford Motor Company.

The four-year-old, who won the Geelong Cup 10 days ago, was bred at Gnarwarre’s Rosemont Stud, from a mare owned by the stud team of local sporting identity Anthony Mithen and his brother-inlaw Nigel Austin.

Austin is better known to most of Geelong — including his thousands of employees — as the founder of clothing industry giant Cotton On. His is a local success story on multiple levels.

In a field crowded by high-priced international imports, Runaway will line up on Tuesday as the little horse that could.

It is rare that a horse boasting so many purely local connections gets his chance on racing’s biggest stage. That he was able to salute in his home town was thrilling enough.

For the connections, Rosemont Stud, Cotton On employees and those who know them, a Melbourne-Geelong Cup double could be the stuff of fairytales.

Today we tell the story of how all these disparate parties came together and how this unlikely Melbourne Cup fancy came to win his chance at winning one of the world’s most prestigious horse races.

On Tuesday, Runaway will have the chance to add another chapter to that story.

And you can bet that Geelong will be along for the ride.