Oh, what a crying shame
If you bought my e-book "How To Pick The Winner Of The 2007 Melbourne Cup" you will know my selection for the Cup was Purple Moon. If you followed my tip this article by the very attractive Francesca Cumani (daughter of the trainer Luca Cumaini) might make you feel better! :)
Purple Moon (rails), after looking the winner, is run down by Efficient in the Cup.
Photo: Pat Scala
HALF a length between us and the Melbourne Cup. So close yet so far. Purple Moon's narrow defeat in Tuesday's great race goes to prove just how hard it is to win the Melbourne Cup. We had the perfect horse and the perfect prep and still we were beaten. All I can say is that Damien Oliver gave him a superb ride and the horse ran his heart out and I have to accept that he was beaten by a better horse on the day.
I'm trying to be philosophical about it now but I have to admit that as Efficient collared "George" on the line, the emotion was all a bit much and I could not help the tears that sprang to my eyes. I could not believe that we had so nearly won, yet we hadn't. Just half a length and we would have been proudly taking the Cup back to England for the very first time — just half a length.
As they came around the home turn "George" was travelling like a dream and Damien was just having to edge him out to avoid the horses who were starting to go backwards in front of him. As was our worry, he found himself in front at the 400-metre pole simply because the frontrunners were not going to take him any further. Mahler put up a great challenge but "George" was able to stretch past him and, for a moment, looked the winner.
Then a quick scan of the field and it looked like we had them all beaten until I spotted the previously out-of-form grey son of Zabeel. He appeared as if out of nowhere and with such a strong run that it was going to be impossible to fend him off. "George" sensed him coming and surged again but Efficient came swooping late and wide and I could hardly watch as he drew alongside and got his head in front. The straight at Flemington is short by our standards but it felt like the winning post would never come and then it did, too late.
I had my dad standing next to me throughout and I think he could foresee the outcome from 600 metres out. As "George" was just begging Damien to unleash him, he was saying, "just wait, just wait", and he knew that once he hit the front he would become a target for any horse coming with a late run. But Damien had no choice.
Without Efficient in the field, "George" would have won by three lengths, but as I said, we were beaten by a better horse on the day.
Efficient chose the Melbourne Cup as the occasion to reproduce his excellent Derby form. The Williams team said earlier in the week that the Melbourne Cup was their obsession and it had been 22 years since they last won it. It was only our second attempt and now that we know just how much it means to win it I can totally understand and sympathise with that obsession. Indeed, my dad's first words once it had sunk in were, "We will be back next year."
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