‘Retribution’ bonus
HE’S been the Melbourne Cup’s hard luck tale for the past two years and Vengeur Masque’s connections hailed a piece of ‘‘retribution’’ after the Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner was controversially denied a spot in Tuesday’s great race by a jockey who flouted the whip rule.
Mike Moroney’s import scooped a $100,000 bonus for winning the group 3 race on the final day of the Flemington carnival on Saturday but the issue of whether he should have gone around four days earlier in the $6 million Cup was still at the forefront of their minds.
Vengeur Masque narrowly missed out on winning the Lexus Stakes – which provides automatic 11th hour qualification for the winner – when Cismontane’s rider Stephen Baster used the whip five times more than allowed before the 100 metres last Saturday.
‘‘It’s justice, I think, isn’t it? After what happened last Saturday it’s [a consolation],’’ Vengeur Masque’s managing part-owner Rupert Legh said as the Geelong Cup winner held off Grey Lion in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
‘‘You don’t like to get caught up in it, but if we whipped our horse just as much who knows what the end result would have been? It was unfortunate because he had the right weight for the Mel- bourne Cup, we knew he would stay the two miles and today is a good bit of retribution.’’
Vengeur Masque was stranded at No 25 in last year’s Melbourne Cup order of entry and despite coming close in the Lexus Stakes and in arguably better form was left adrift at No 26 this year.
The Victoria Racing Club is again set for discussions with Tabcorp over the possibility of adding emergencies to the Melbourne Cup after Who Shot Thebarman was scratched more than 48 hours before this year’s race.
‘‘It’s got to be done now,’’ Legh said. ‘‘They can fix it and it just matters how committed they are to fixing it. He’s close to being in the Melbourne Cup next year and now we hopefully don’t have to worry about it.’’
Vengeur Masque rallied under a strong challenge from Matt Cumani’s Grey Lion, winning by three-quarters-of-a-length as Bendigo Cup hero Qewy laboured into sixth.
Trainer Charlie Appleby immediately retired last year’s Melbourne Cup fourth placegetter.
‘‘He owes Godolphin nothing,’’ Appleby said. ‘‘He’s done a great job and deserves a healthy retirement. Breaking track records is great, but when you have to back them up in a certain amount of time it tells. He lost nothing in defeat in my eyes anyway.’’
It will almost certainly be a case of third time lucky for Vengeur Masque’s connections, who can potentially start planning with some certainty their improving stayer has done enough to force his way into the 2018 Cup field.
‘‘It’s just disappointing that he didn’t make the Melbourne Cup, we knew it was his first year of the next two to make the Cup," Moroney said. "I would have loved to have run him this year, he would have really run well but we just missed out.’’
Added jockey Patrick Moloney: ‘‘He’s a bit dirty he didn’t get into the Melbourne Cup, I think. He didn’t want to lay down today. As soon as he got challenged by that horse [Grey Lion], I knew I had a bit up my sleeve and he just kept fighting like a caged tiger.’’