by Darcy “Dingo” MacPhee<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Jump:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They field jumped as one from the gate, but right after we saw the old man of the field \u201cRED KORNSNAKE\u201d<\/em><\/strong> push into the lead, it was difficult to tell if the jockey \u201cD Ledwith\u201d was riding to instructions or if the horse had taken charge of him. I vote for the latter, it seems that OL\u2019 RED<\/strong> had decided today he was going to show the world he is not too old for this racing caper. A group of 4 trailed the leader through the 1st<\/sup> 400 metres in a tight bunch. \u201cTAKAVACHO\u201d<\/em><\/strong> tucked in with a nice trail behind the leader on the rails, with \u201cCONCRETE KING\u201d<\/em><\/strong> sitting outside him. Pushing on outside these two were \u201cHELP THE ORPHANS\u201d<\/strong> and \u201cYOU HAVE NO CHOICE\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, posted 3 and 4 wide they both \u201chad no choice\u201d and as the two horses inside them were happy to trail the leader. These 5 had already started to move away from the rest of the field led by \u201cTHE JUST KNIGHT\u201d<\/em><\/strong> shading \u201cMARECHAL DAVOUT\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>to his outside with the rest stringing out behind in order of \u201cFORTY ORDERS\u201d, \u201cCONQUEST DYNASTY\u201d, \u201cBLUEFISH LASAGNE B\u201d, \u201cFAST VIDAR\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and \u201cF NOM DE JEU\u201d<\/em><\/strong> dropping out to last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Half Way Mark:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was very little change in the field as they travelled down the back to the far turn, with just over 1200 metres to they had reached the halfway point of the race, jockey \u201cWilliam (Bill) McClendon\u201d tickled \u201cTAKAVACHO\u2019S\u201d <\/em><\/strong>ear barely rustled his reigns, and the big horse surged forward. \u201cFrankie Gossett\u201d aboard \u201cCONCRETE KING\u201d<\/em><\/strong> gave his horse a cut with the whip and a couple of kicks in the ribs and went with him, both pushing underneath the still posted wide numbers 8 and 9 horses. It was about here with 1200 metres to run that OL\u2019 RED\u2019s <\/strong>jock knew he was done and eased up on the old guy, and let him start to fall back through the field. By the 1000 metre mark \u201cTAKAVACHO\u201d<\/em><\/strong> got through with \u201cCONCRETE KING\u201d<\/em><\/strong> to hit the lead from \u201cYOU HAVE NO CHOICE\u201d<\/em><\/strong> posted four wide still being shaded by about a \u00bd length by \u201cHELP THE ORPHANS\u201d<\/strong> on his inside. The remainder of the field were dropping off the leading pair like flies in a drought, with the one exception of that culinary masterpiece (yuck) \u201cBLUEFISH LASAGNE B\u201d <\/em><\/strong>who was the only other horse who looked to be in a forward gear as he started to catch and pass horses in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Home Turn:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the horses come to the turn \u201cTAKAVACHO\u201d <\/em><\/strong>gives those behind him a quick swish of his tail as if waving goodbye and quickly puts a length and a half on the second horse. \u201cYOU HAVE NO CHOICE\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and \u201cHELP THE ORPHANS\u201d<\/em><\/strong> are dropping back but still fighting hard for 3rd<\/sup> and 4th<\/sup> with NO CHOICE<\/strong> gradually getting to ORPHANS<\/strong> on his inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they round the turn the No 5 Horse \u201cMARECHAL DAVOUT\u201d <\/em><\/strong>finally gets past the 2 horse \u201cTHE JUST KNIGHT\u201d <\/em><\/strong>for 5th<\/sup> only to almost immediately be pushed back to 6th<\/sup> where he has sat all race by \u201cBLUEFISH LASAGNE B\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>who is still pushing on down the middle of the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At The Line:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As the horses come to the line it\u2019s \u201cTAKAVACHO\u201d <\/em><\/strong>in a canter by over 3 lengths (I swear I saw him poke his tongue out as he crossed the line) from a gallant \u201cCONCRETE KING\u201d<\/em><\/strong> who tried hard all race but found the winner a class above today. \u201cBLUEFISH LASAGNE B\u201d <\/em><\/strong>kept coming hard down the middle of the track, getting into 3rd<\/sup> about 50 metres from the post some 9 1\/4 lengths from the winner, the only horse who had a better sectional time being the winner. \u201cYOU HAVE NO CHOICE\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>and \u201cHELP THE ORPHANS\u201d<\/em><\/strong> continued their race long war all the way to the line, where they both recorded the exact same time with the judge giving \u201cYOU HAVE NO CHOICE\u201d <\/em><\/strong>the nod by a mere 0.110 SP for fourth place, just over a length from the 3rd<\/sup> horse. A herculean effort by these 2 horses who ran 3 and 4 wide for the entire 2400 metres of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A further 2 lengths back in 6th<\/sup> where he only plodded along for the entire race was \u201cMARECHAL DAVOUT\u201d. <\/em><\/strong>Seventh was \u201cTHE JUST KNIGHT\u201d<\/em><\/strong> who also just plodded along midfield a rather disappointing race for his connections. In order the next four finishers were \u201cFORTY ORDERS\u201d, \u201cFAST VIDAR\u201d<\/em><\/strong>, \u201cCONQUEST DYNASTY\u201d <\/em><\/strong>and \u201cF NOM DE JEU\u201d <\/em><\/strong>which surprised no-one although I must say I found the run of the 11 horse a little disappointing as he was my longshot tip. The Grand old stager \u201cRED KORNSNAKE\u201d <\/em><\/strong>did end up finishing last, and I have had it confirmed that it seems it was the horses idea to charge the lead at the start of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, that\u2019s a wrap for the main event today from Headquarters of Australian Racing the mighty Flemington Racecourse home of the Melbourne Cup the first Tuesday of November every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We again find ourselves with a nice bankroll safely deposited in the ATM after backing the winner at the lucrative odds of 8\/1, my PA Melissa has a grin from ear to ear and a nice bonus in her purse as she drops me back at my hotel before we fly home tomorrow<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good Punting All<\/p>\n\n\n\n Darcy \u201cDingo\u201d MacPhee<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Money Money Money, It’s a Rich Man’s World by Darcy “Dingo” MacPhee The Jump: They field jumped as one from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24692,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61207"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24692"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61207"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61218,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61207\/revisions\/61218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}