Worldbeater! Brett Prebble guides Green Moon to an easy Emirates Melbourne Cup win
Green Moon won the world’s richest handicap and Australia’s most famous race, the 152nd running of the $6.2 million Emirates Melbourne Cup on Tuesday this week. It was a fourth Cup win for owner Lloyd Williams and a first for jet-setting jockey Brett Prebble, after the Hong Kong-based rider gave Green Moon “the ride of my life.”
The Emirates Melbourne Cup is run over 3200m under handicap conditions and provided plenty of thrills and excitement as the nation once again came to a standstill.
Prebble said moments after pulling up on the import that Williams bought from England specifically for the Melbourne Cup, that it had been “my life dream to do it” and paid tribute to Williams for engaging him for the mount after Green Moon had run so poorly just 10 days ago in the Cox Plate.
“He was never going to get beat,” Prebble said.
“He got a severe check about 250 metres after the start but eventually got into a rhythm and then I put it to him on straightening.”
The winner is trained by former AFL footballer Robert Hickmott, who played a number of games for Melbourne and has been the head trainer at Williams’ Mt Macedon training property for the past four years.
Owner Williams has won previously with Just A Dash (1981), What A Nuisance (1985) and in 2007 with Efficient.
The topweight and heavily-backed favourite Dunaden found early trouble in the race and never looked likely to go close.
His jockey Craig Williams said Dunaden “nearly fell at the start” and added “he had too much weight and he’s now a weight-for-age horse that is better left at 2400 metres.”
Green Moon won easily from Gai Waterhouse’s import, Fiorente with third place being filled by another imported horse in Jakkalberry , who is trained by the Italian Marco Botti.
The Melbourne Cup proved again that It is Australia’s best known sporting event. The official attendance was 106 162.
It has a long and colourful history indeed. The race originated in 1861 as a result of one upmanship between the Victoria Jockey Club and the Victoria Turf Club. In that year the Turf Club decided to introduce a two mile handicap, to be called the Melbourne Cup, to trump its rival club.
It is run on the first Tuesday of November each year – except during World War 11 when run on a Saturday.
The first ever Melbourne Cup was won by Archer in 1861, and he won it again the following year. The more famous winners of the great race include Carbine (1890), Phar Lap (1930), Peter Pan (1932 & 34), Comic Court (1951), Rising Fast (1954), Galilee (1966), Rain Lover (1968 & 69), Kiwi (1983), Vintage Crop (1993), Saintly (1996), Might And Power (1997) and Makybe Diva (2003, 2004 & 2005).
