Emotions run high in Cup lead-up
OWNER HOPES SON’S SPIRIT LIVES
A LEADING Melbourne Cup contender will have extra help from the heavens next Tuesday after an unimaginable family tragedy.
Less than seven weeks since losing his son James, Melbourne business tycoon and Essendon AFL powerbroker Mark Casey will have import Camorra racing in his son’s memory on Tuesday.
Diabetic James Casey, 26, died in New York in September after going for a night out without his insulin and then slipping into a coma.
It would have been James’ 27th birthday on Thursday and his loved ones will come together at his favourite French restaurant in Melbourne where a commemorative plague will be unveiled.
Mark Casey has purchased a significant ownership share in the import, trained by brothers Ben and JD Hayes, and it will be an emotion charged moment if he can soar to Cup glory.
About 500 people attended a celebration of James Casey’s life last month including Essendon greats James Hird and Mark Harvey and star jockey Mark Zahra.
“With everything that has happened, I really hope we can raise that Melbourne Cup trophy for James. It would be a very special moment,” Casey said.
“I feel that James will be doing whatever he can from up above to get this horse home, he was a good talker and he would be working the system so Camorra can win.
“James had diabetes and he fell asleep while out in New York and they just thought he was drunk.
“But unfortunately with diabetes, once you go into a comatose state it is hard to bring you back. He had left his insulin on the end of his bed in his hotel room and he had no identification on him to say that he was diabetic. They just couldn’t wake him up and it was all too late.”
Casey got into the ownership of Camorra after the galloper was sourced by Jarred Magnabosco whose Best Bloodstock company hit the headlines racing Queensland galloper Sacred Oath which was part-owned by cricket great Shane Warne.
Casey owns a boutique breeding operation and Camorra will run in his colours in the Melbourne Cup.
Casey has gone close to winning a Melbourne Cup before when overseas raider Heartbreak City finished second in 2016 and before that he had Jakkalberry run third in 2012.
“Ever since I was a kid, my dream has been to win a Melbourne Cup,” Casey said.
“I grew up in Essendon, every year from when I was about eight onwards I used to go to the Melbourne Cup.”
Casey will have an extra reason to cheer in the Cup because he also has a share in Gold Trip, the Ciaron Maher and David Eustacetrained galloper who never saw clear air in the Cox Plate when a luckless ninth.
Camorra comes with impressive credentials having won the Group 2 Curragh Cup (2816m) in June – the same race won by imports Rekindling and Twilight Payment before their respective Melbourne Cup wins in 2017 and 2020.