Godolphin finally have something to cheer about down under with All The Good winning the Caulfield Cup at 50-1. I was thinking all week that this was not going to be a race for the favouriates and that an outsider had a chance at taking this one out. I was super keen on Ice Chariot and Mad Rush as hopes but just pick the wrong guys. But having said that, Mad Rush by far and above anything else was finishing the best of any horse including the winner, a 2800 metre race and he storms home.
So the result was All The Good, Nom de Jeu and Barbaricus with Mad Rush for forth. Now I really face a delima as my system that you can get in the guide will have All The Good as the best foreign horse but I am totally hung up on Mad Rush after the Caulfield Cup run.
Ice Chariot I think was out classed or maybe even picked the wrong horse to follow into the race and then didn’t have enough when the go buttons needed to be pressed. You can see from the video below that at about the 600m mark Littorio comes to the outside but does not quite go at that stage and fades a bit before coming home for 5th, but if it had enough to keep going Ice Chariot was ready to follow but they both kind of stalled at the 400-600 mark with nothing really coming. Ice Chariot was still grinding away but has no turn of speed whereas Littorio kicked
Over the next few days, while sitting here in Tasmania over looking Constitution Dock I will put together my top four horses as it currently stands for the Melbourne Cup and we’ll see ow things stack up. The important thing to keep in mind is not to get caught up in all this and think about some horses outside of this race, the likes of Efficient, Zipping etc are still out there.
Otherwise, the Caulfield Cup has just confirmed everything that we knew about Weekend Hussler and some people did not want to believe. Weekend Hussler is a great 1600 metre runner, perhaps the best and should stick with that. Horses like Desert War, knew their place and dominated the EPSOM and that distance, I don’t think we’ll see Weekend Hussler in the Cox or Melbourne Cup and should be spelled to tackle more appropriate races in the Auntum like the Doncaster.
Here it is…The 2008 Caulfield Cup
October 20th, 2008 at 8:34 am
The best runner that noone noticed: Red Ruler.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I am inclined to not get too caught up in the Caulfield Cup form from this year… massive on-pace bias, and a lot of the fancied horses that took sits didn’t run the trip. As such, it is easy to get caught up on the winner who took a sit and mad Rush who wasn’t too far back.
The run-on types that didn’t disgrace themselves will be great value because they got no favours from the bias, Master O Reilly, Ice Chariot showed that they could stay. Flemington might suit the pair more, as will the extra four furlongs.
Mad Rush’s run didn’t look too dissimilar from Red Rulers’ and the only horse that managed to “fight” the bias was Nom De Jeu who put in as good a Melbourne Cup trial as one could ask for.
When Barbaricus sticks on like that, you need to be so careful.
Delta Blues Caulfield cup run sticks out as the last time I have seen a Caulfield run and been willing to go nuts!