Thebarman’s not shot yet
On a near perfect day for ex-pat Kiwi trainer Chris Waller, who witnessed his champion Winx win a 25th straight race, it was arguably his third Group I triumph on Saturday that was his sweetest.
Veteran stayer Who Shot Thebarman saluted in the A$2 million ($2.1m NZD) Sydney Cup at his fifth attempt at the ripe old age of nine.
In a tick over three minutes and 20 seconds work, Who Shot Thebarman banked $1.19m for his winning run.
Moments after watching his champion secure the hardestearned of wins, New Zealand coowner Shaun O’Leary begin dreaming of even bigger riches in the spring.
‘‘We want to make history,’’ O’Leary said when asked about running in a fourth Melbourne Cup.
‘‘He’s just one of those horses. He’s like his owners, getting better with age.’’
In human terms, Who Shot Thebarman is around the 35 year mark.
Bred by Brian and Lorraine Anderton at White Robe Lodge, Who Shot Thebarman beat home New Zealand trained runners Zacada (Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman) by a head with a further length back to Sir Charles Road (Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott) for a Kiwi trifecta of sorts.
Who Shot Thebarman, by the now deceased sire Yamanin Vital, is essentially part of the O’Leary family.
He is raced by the O’Leary brothers, Shaun, Humphrey, Danny (Whanganui district) and Michael (Rangitikei district) plus their wives.
It was actually the horse’s sixth start in a Sydney Cup – he fell in the first running of last year’s edition before the race was abandoned, then backed up two weeks later to be beaten a head by Polarisation.
That was his second near miss in the race.
Two years prior he was edged out of it by a nose, upstaged by stablemate Grand Marshall.
All said, Who Shot Thebarman had collected six minor Group I placings in Australia to go with his 2014 Auckland Cup win before Saturday’s breakthrough.
That included a third in Protectionist’s Melbourne Cup four years ago.
He was also scratched on Melbourne Cup eve last year with an elevated temperature, robbing him of the opportunity to become the first nine-year-old in history to win Australia’s greatest staying race.
‘‘He would certainly be the most frustrating horse to train, not because of the horse but the seconds, the thirds in Melbourne Cups, Sydney Cups, year in, year out,’’ Waller said.
‘‘It was heartbreaking on the owner when he had to be scratched on the eve of the Melbourne Cup with an elevated temperature.
‘‘That’s the best that he’s looked today as a nine-year-old. He was a test as a younger horse and we haven’t given up on him.
‘‘You just need everything in your favour. It was the bob of the head.
‘‘To tell you the truth, we thought we were beaten as they crossed the line, but today’s our day.’’
Aside from Winx’s win in the rich Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Waller also won the Group I Australian Oaks with Unforgotten.
Jockey Blake Shinn needed the entire straight to run down Zacada before his triumph was confirmed in the tightest of photos.
‘‘If there is ever a horse that deserves to win a Sydney Cup it’s him, only narrowly beaten in two, nine years old, and he’s got a great group of owners that follow him around every year,’’ Shinn said.
White Robe Lodge’s other representative in the race, Patrick Erin, who transferred to Waller from Brian and Shane Anderton’s stable following his fourth in the Wellington Cup under a ridiculous weight, finished sixth.