Extraordinary year capped by Melbourne Cup triumph
Dubai-based stable adds Melbourne Cup to list of victories to cap a memorable 2018
Cross Counter earned Godolphin its first Melbourne Cup victory yesterday in front of 83,000 racegoers at Flemington Racecourse.
Ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, Cross Counter produced a stunning performance to win the 158th running of Australia’s famous race.
The result caps a stunning 2018 for the Dubai racing operation headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
Thunder Snow won the Dubai World Cup in March and Masar, trained by Charlie Appleby, gave the famous blue silks their first victory at the Epsom Derby in June.
“This is everybody’s dream,” said winning trainer Appleby of Cross Counter’s victory in the AUS$7.3 million (Dh19m) race.
“This year has been so incredible, winning a Derby and now this. I don’t want it to end.
“For me it’s obviously very special to be here, but for the team, it’s just fantastic. I’ve spoken to His Highness [Sheikh Mohammed] and he’s over the moon about this result – it’s a challenge that’s been a long road.
“I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s a day I will never forget. It’s been a very memorable day.
“Coming into today, this horse ticked a lot of boxes. But Kerrin, I’m just delighted, that’s some ride, I saw him going down the back there ... the way he angled out when making his ride.
“I just thought, turning in, if he finds the gaps, this horse has got the gears to pick up.” Torrential rain pelted down on Melbourne in the morning, but cleared after midday, drying out the track from heavy to soft.
Saddled with 51kg, the joint equal lowest burden with Rostropovich, Cross Counter had work to do entering the final turn after jumping wide from barrier 19. Runaway set the early pace in the two-mile contest, with McEvoy content to sit towards the rear of the field and he had only a handful of horses behind him turning for home.
He had to switch wide to launch his challenge in the straight, with the Charlie Fellows-trained Prince Of Arran having set sail for home.
However, Cross Counter was flying in the final furlong and while Marmelo also tried to produce a late push, he had no reply to McEvoy’s mount and had to settle for second ahead of A Prince of Arran. McEvoy said: “What a thrill – to do it for Sheikh Mohammed and Charlie Appleby. Obviously, Godolphin has been a huge supporter of mine. Well done to Charlie and this little horse.
“I was back a little bit further than I wanted, I knew I was full of running and at the furlong I thought ‘is this happening again?’. I’m just lucky I can ride light and he’s been unbelievably well prepared by Charlie Appleby.”
McEvoy’s wife will also be happy with her husband after he promised that if he won, he’d buy her a new house.
“I did promise [the kids] a swimming pool. And [wife] Cathy and myself have been looking around for a bigger house ... and I said to one of the reporters yesterday that if I won I would buy Cathy a new house, so look out,” McEvoy said.
Since the 1880s, the Carbine Lodge stables have offered unrivalled views across the Flemington racecourse in Melbourne, named after a horse so lucky, women would often pluck his tail hair as a good luck charm. Today you are more likely to see the royal blue silks of Godolphin belonging to the stables’ current owners but it seems Carbine’s magic is still casting a spell over the racecourse, more than a century on. Yesterday Godolphin’s Cross Counter won the prestigious Melbourne Cup for the first time, ending a 20-year wait for glory in Australia and completing a remarkable hat-trick of Group 1 wins for the Dubai racing operation, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai. Cross Counter’s success follows Masar’s triumph at the Epsom Derby in June and Thunder Snow storming to his seventh win in the Dubai World Cup earlier this year.
In Melbourne, the joy on Sheikh Mohammed’s face was apparent; his trainers were left speechless. Dubai’s ruler attended his first race meeting in 1967 after famously sharing his breakfast with his horse on his way to school. He has long been known as a global powerhouse in the equestrian world but Godolphin’s achievements will have reverberations beyond the sphere of horse racing. From Kentucky in the US to Hokkaido in Japan, from the UK’s Newmarket to Ireland’s Kildare, he has pumped millions into stud farms and facilities, boosting local trade and economies, and both lending skills and hiring from the talent pool in each of those communities. The success of the 26-yearold stables, with more than 5,000 wins worldwide, encapsulates the story of the pioneering spirit of Dubai, one that endlessly pushes forward and innovates in everything it does. Rightly, that has grabbed the attention of the world once again.