Chester

The Camden Advertiser

Cup buff gets gig
BY ILONA MARCHETTA
16/09/2009 10:18:00 AM

MAX Hitchins thought he was on to a brain exercise with a difference when he set out to memorise all 100 Melbourne Cup winners.

But Mr Hitchins wasn't satisfied when he was told, after completing the exercise, that there were quite a few people who could perform the feat.


So he went on to memorise the iconic horse race's second and third place-getters, learning anecdotes about them along the way.


Now famed in Australian racing circles, Mr Hitchins was an obvious choice to host the Melbourne Cup Ball at Camden's Camelot House in October. Camden is where you will find the grave of CHester the 1877 Melbourne Cup winner. In the picture Camden Mayor Chris Patterson is seen here with Max Hitchins.


The ball celebrates the 2009 Emirates Melbourne Cup Tour through Camden on Friday, October 23.


``I'm a Melbourne Cup nutter,'' said Mr Hitchins, who is a motivational speaker and hospitality industry professional.


``I grew up in a country town in northern NSW called Moree ... I was never interested in punting, I was more interested in the history of the races and the horses.''


He's found a way to put his hobby to use each year he collects and analyses data on racing horses around the world to narrow the 24 horses entered into the Melbourne Cup down to six likely winners. He sells the information as eBook How To Pick The Winner Of The Emirates Melbourne Cup.


Retired jockey John Letts, who won the cup on Piping Lane in 1972 and on Beldale Ball in 1980, will also attend the ball as a tour ambassador.


Tickets to the ball are $125 (each) or $1100 for a table of 10.


Details, bookings: 46547777.

Roman Emperor

HUGH Bowman, winner of the inaugural Bart Cummings Medal, is linking with racing's living legend in a bid to finally ride in a Melbourne Cup this spring.

The champion jockey has retained the mount on Cummings' top stayer Roman Emperor in the Group Two $150,000 Hill Stakes (1900m) at Rosehill Gardens tomorrow.

Bowman, Sydney's reigning premier jockey, is hopeful he stays on Roman Emperor this spring, allowing him to achieve a career ambition and have his first Melbourne Cup ride.

"Roman Emperor has got my weight in the Cups,'' Bowman said. "I've told the stable I'm available to ride the horse in the Melbourne Cup if they want me.''

Bowman had been booked to ride Randwick and Rosehill Guineas winner Metal Bender in the Cups this spring but that horse broke down in training last month. Then the Roman Emperor mount became available when Jim Cassidy elected to stay with Vision And Power in the Chelmsford Stakes and again in the Hill Stakes.

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Cassidy had ridden Roman Emperor in his AJC Australian Derby triumph last autumn. Bowman partnered the Cummings stayer in the Chelmsford and was impressed with his closing fifth behind rising star O'Lonhro.

"Roman Emperor's effort at Randwick last start was very encouraging. He's heading the right way,'' Bowman enthused.

Bowman has good reason to stick with the Cummings stable as the Hall of Fame trainer has won an extraordinary 12 Melbourne Cups.

The great trainer wants to make it a baker's dozen of Melbourne Cups and rates Roman Emperor and last year's winner Viewed, who is running in the Group One $350,000 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield tomorrow, as his best chances this year.

Cummings used the Hill Stakes to get champion Saintly back to winning touch on his way to a memorable Melbourne Cup success in 1996.

Speed Gifted

Currently, Speed Gifted is the $9 second favourite for the Caulfield Cup but has not passed the first elimination clause for the race and is equal 83rd in line for a start in the 18-horse field. Win today, and he sits with the Makybe Diva Stakes winner of 14 days ago Vigor, as exempt from the ballot and at the top of the betting for the $2.5 million handicap.

Freedman, who has won four Caulfield Cups and five Melbourne Cups but has struggled to have a runner in either race over the last few years, said yesterday that it was one thing to have a good opportunity and another to take it. ''It's a great chance to get into a race like a Caulfield Cup with a nice weight and I think the race is a terrific idea. But you've still got to win it,'' he said yesterday.

''I am concerned of course about the start [barrier 18] but there is a good 400-metre run to the first turn and if he can park somewhere he'll have his chance if he's good enough.''

Speed Gifted, who began his racing career in the UK, can today give Freedman his best chance at the major cups since the 2005 Melbourne Cup win of three-time champion Makybe Diva. He has just 51 kilograms in the Caulfield Cup, where a top-five placing would lift him beyond the first ballot clause for the Melbourne Cup.

The six-year-old has won at both starts in Melbourne since arriving from the UK and goes into the spring as one of the carnival's wildcards. At best, he can measure up into being a Melbourne Cup horse. ''He was considered a good 2400-metre horse in Europe, so you'd think 3200 metres on a flat track [Flemington] shouldn't be a bother.''

As a back-up in case Speed Gifted does not earn an automatic Caulfield Cup start, he will run the horse in the group 1 Metropolitan (2400 metres) in Sydney on October 3 where the horse would be certain of attracting a penalty that would lift him into the field for the Caulfield Cup.

Hoorang

NZ.

Durable mare Hoorang's Melbourne Cup campaign gained a lift when she beat a handy field over 2000m at Hastings yesterday.

Her trainer, Wanganui vet Ian Shaw, was inquiring into bookings to Melbourne today, but said it looked as if she would head over in the first week of October.

He had not nominated her for the $1.2 million Kelt Stakes at Hastings on October 3, and said the $45,000 late nomination fee ruled out any second thoughts on that front.

Hoorang is nominated for both the Caulfield and Melbourne cups, but Shaw said he wouldn't be worried if, as seemed likely, she failed to make the Caulfield Cup field.

"She is pushing it to get in, but it's an on-pacers' track and the turns are a bit tight. It might not suit her as much as Flemington, where the long straight is better for her," he told NZPA today.

Hoorang is 57th in the order of entry for the Melbourne Cup and would need to win a penalty-bearing race to have a chance of making the field.

Shaw said he would look for suitable races to try to get her in the field, including the Saab Quality (2500m) three days before the cup, where the winner is exempt from the cup ballot.

Hoorang, who won the New Zealand Cup at Riccarton in November, powered home down the outside yesterday, to win by three-quarters of a length from Halls, who flew late to cut Harris Tweed out of third, with New Zealand Oaks winner Jungle Rocket running on well for fourth.

Hoorang had benefited from increased fast work at training and a tongue tie yesterday, Shaw said.

WHOBEGOTYOU

THE AGE
Andrew Eddy
September 23, 2009

WHOBEGOTYOU may try to emulate the remarkable final campaign of champion mare Makybe Diva, with a Melbourne Cup run to possibly follow his Cox Plate tilt.

Trainer Mark Kavanagh said it was a distinct possibility that Whobegotyou could contest the Melbourne Cup, as Makybe Diva did in 2005, off a successful Cox Plate campaign.

''She showed that it was possible and it's certainly an option that has its appeal,'' he said yesterday.

''Every owner wants a Melbourne Cup runner and he's fully qualified and is assured to get a run in the race, so you'd be mad not to seriously consider it.''

Few punters have considered the plan, as while Whobegotyou is the $3.80 favourite to win the Cox Plate on October 24, he is a $41 chance to win the Melbourne Cup 10 days later.

Whobegotyou has run just once over further than 2040 metres, when he was runner-up to Rebel Raider in last spring's 2500-metre Victoria Derby.

Some observers thought Whobegotyou failed to stay the trip and so have dismissed him as a Melbourne Cup chance.

Kavanagh said plans were still up in the air for Whobegotyou, who could run in Saturday week's Turnbull Stakes at Flemington or be saved for the following week's Yalumba Stakes at Caulfield.

Kavanagh paid the $770 on behalf of owner Lawrence Eales for Whobegotyou to remain in the hunt for the Caulfield Cup when second declarations were taken yesterday - one of 82 horses still in the hunt.

Unsung Heroine

Andrew Eddy
September 25, 2009

AdvertisementDAVID Hayes' best Melbourne Cup chance Unsung Heroine is struggling with an infected tendon, which threatens to derail lofty plans for the imported mare this spring.

The Sadler's Wells mare, who was purchased in England last December for $2.4 million by Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell Stud, has missed some vital work this week, which has placed her entire campaign in doubt.

''She's on antibiotics at the moment and can't work, so it's important that she gets back on the track as soon as possible - certainly by the weekend - if she's going to get to the Melbourne Cup,'' Hayes said yesterday.

''She really turned the corner after she had that run at Flemington [when last in a 1700-metre handicap]. She wasn't working that well before the race but that seemed to spark her on and she was coming along very nicely. She'd been working brilliantly and I was looking forward to Friday night's race, but it's not the end of the world if she can't make it [to the Melbourne Cup]. I won't push her, as when she arrived here I had 2010 in mind for her anyway.''

Unsung Heroine made her Australian debut earlier this month at Flemington but failed to beat a runner home in an unsuitable 1700-metre race. Hayes said he was expecting her to improve ''out of sight'' in tonight's JRA Cup at Moonee Valley before the infection.

''It's nothing like a bowed tendon or anything like that,'' he said. ''She's obviously nicked herself slightly and the infection has come from there but we're hoping we've got on top of it and she can push on,'' he said.

Meanwhile, top rider Noel Callow has escaped serious injury but is expected to miss at least two weeks of the spring carnival after a fall at Betfair Park on Wednesday. Callow was cleared of any breaks, but sustained severe bruising to the buttocks.

Capecover NZ - Sand Hawk NZ

Blodstock.com.au
25/9/09


New Zealanders Capecover and Sand Hawk continue their preparations aimed at the $5.5 million Melbourne Cup in the Ansett Classic.

Capecover, prepared by Alexander Fieldes, is well known in Australia having won last year's Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2500m) at Flemington after being balloted out of the Melbourne Cup.

The Cape Cross gelding would have gained a berth in the 2008 Cup had he won the Saab Quality (2500m) at Flemington, a race in which he didn't have a lot of luck before finishing third to Moatize, beaten just over a length.

Fieldes, a meat inspector who took two months off to prepare Capecover on Paddy Payne's property near Ballarat, has done the same again this spring with the Melbourne Cup his major focus.

The seven-year-old, weighted to carry 51.5kg in the Cup which is 8kg below weight-for-age, is qualified and currently 36th in the elimination order.

Capecover began his campaign with unplaced runs over 1400m and 1600m in New Zealand before running eighth to Red Lord in the Group Three Naturalism Stakes (2000m) at Caulfield on September 19.

Craig Williams, who has ridden Capecover five times, again takes the mount on Saturday.

The Jenny Vance-trained Sand Hawk has yet to pass the first ballot clause for the Cup and is currently 97th in the elimination order but the first prize of $61,000 in the Ansett Classic would qualify the six-year-old.

But the Sandtrap gelding, with 50kg in the Cup which is 9.5kg below weight-for-age, would need to incur a penalty to improve his chances of gaining a start in the 24-horse field.

Damien Oliver has been engaged to ride Sand Hawk who last start made it seven wins from 37 starts when he scored over 2100m on a slow track at Ellerslie.