Aussie win with touch of theatre

AFTER months of meticulous planning and preparation, Danny O’Brien and Craig Williams credited an extraordinary surge to Melbourne Cup glory to racing’s most fickle element: late-race interference.

Celebrating maiden victories in the $8 million handicap, O’Brien and Williams believe buffeting that prompted what is believed to be the first stewards’ protest in Cup history helped Vow And Declare scramble home.

“I said to Craig that it got a bit willing on the post [but], Craig actually said it helped as he got there a bit soon and that squeeze up made him surge through again,” O’Brien said.

“Watching it live, I did think that they had gone by my horse and he was going to run third or fourth.

“But he has found something in the last 50 [metres] and put his head out right on the line for us.”

In the dramatic 159th edition of the race, stewards added an appropriately theatrical touch by demoting Frankie Dettori’s mount Master Of Reality from second to fourth after upholding their own protest.

The decision was accompanied by a nine-meeting ban for Dettori and the promotion of Prince of Arran from third to second and Il Paradiso from fourth to third.

As a devastated Dettori admitted he “felt like crying” after hitting the lead on Master Of Reality and shaping to end an exasperating run of Cup denials, Williams and O’Brien savoured a fabulous success.

Bred in Australia and rated a genetic freak, Vow And Declare struck a rare blow for the locals against a marauding band of invaders.

“The way the race has changed over the last decade it has certainly became a more elusive target for a local trainer and to do it with a locally bred horse is not something that is going to happen very often,” O’Brien said.

“It is getting further and further out of reach, but today shows it can still be done.

“This horse has got the genetic make-up, the heart and the lungs, he has got all the things you need to run 3200m.

“He is actually a horse that isn’t going to fulfil his potential under 3200m.

“He could run 4000m if he was in a race of that distance.”

O’Brien now owns Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup honours.

Pictures: MICHAEL DODGE/AAP BUFFETING: Jockey Craig Williams rides Vow And Declare (right) to victory yesterday against Frankie Dettori riding Master Of Reality and Michael Walker riding Prince of Arran. BOTTOM LEFT: Dettori returns to scale after yesterday’s race. BOTTOM RIGHT: Jockey Michael Walker stands up in the saddle on Prince of Arran.