O’Brien is on mission to add elusive title to a stellar resume Cup redemption beckons
A DECADE on from a trainwreck tilt on the great race, trainer Aidan O’Brien anticipates a vastly different result with The Cliffsofmoher, Yucatan and Rostropovich in today’s Lexus Melbourne Cup.
As Bart Cummings celebrated his 12th Melbourne Cup win in 2008 with long- time owner Dato Tan Chin Nam and Viewed, O’Brien was being grilled by stewards after being summonsed back to Flemington in the wake of his trio Septimus ( Johnny Murtagh), Honolulu ( Colm O’Donoghue) and Alessandroa Volta ( Wayne Lordan) setting a frantic speed in the Cup before winding up 18th, 20th and 21st.
Chief steward Terry Bailey told O’Brien they had seriously considered charging Lordan, who rides Rostropovich for the stable in today’s Cup, with not giving his mount every chance.
O’Brien said the track “was like concrete” and he had seriously considered scratching.
“If you are going to penalise me or the lads, that’s a nonsense, we have come here in good faith,” he said.
O’Brien had conceded he needed to change things if he was to win the race. “We have to look at our preparation,” he said. O’Brien has trained 313 Group 1 winners all over the world, including the Cox Plate in Australia.
His son Joseph beat him to the Melbourne Cup honour roll when Rekindling beat Aidan’s Johannes Vermeer last year. On paper, today presents his best chance to win one of the few races to have eluded him, and which his boss John Magnier and his Coolmore Stud are yet to win. Magnier’s son Tom said it was something his father and O’Brien were desperate to change.
“( Aidan) is very excited. He won’t make it here on the day, but he will be watching it with dad and they are seriously excited about it,” Magnier said. “If we can end the year winning this race, it’s what we want. My dad, on his left hand he could say the races he wants to win and one of them is the Melbourne Cup, so fingers crossed.
“Yucatan is a great chance, they all have good chances. The lads have done very well with the horses, so we will see what happens. We need a bit of luck on the day.”