By Emma Berry
The Lexus Melbourne Cup went to Joseph O’Brien for the second time in four years as the Jim Bolger-bred Twilight Payment (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) gave owner Lloyd Williams his seventh victory in Australia’s storied race under a bold front-running ride from Jye McNeil.
It was a clean sweep of the top three places for European raiders and, in an echo of 2017 when Rekindling (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}) held off Johannes Vermeer (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), O’Brien’s father Aidan had to settle for second best when Irish Derby runner-up Tiger Moth (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) ran home strongly to be runner-up on just the fifth start of his life. Finishing strongest of all, however, was the Charlie Fellowes-trained Prince Of Arran (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}), who claimed a spot in the Melbourne Cup top three for the third year in a row.
In front of deserted stands at Flemington, Twilight Payment was instantly prominent from stall 12, and by the time the field passed the post for the first time he had taken up the running with Tiger Moth tucked in his wake. Given an easy lead, the 7-year-old was joined by the long-striding Finche (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the back stretch and the pair started to draw farther clear on the home turn as a stacked chasing pack jostled for position. With Finche weakening in the straight, Twilight Payment maintained his authority as Tiger Moth laid down his own challenge followed by the Cox Plate winner Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) and eventual fourth-place finisher The Chosen One (NZ) (Savabeel {NZ}). Only Prince Of Arran, trapped behind a wall of horses turning into the straight, made any real late headway with his thrusting late charge to finish less than a length off the winner, a performance which must have have been as heartening as it was frustrating for his connections.
While 3-year-old Tiger Moth justified his huge support going into the race to hold on for second, there was a dreadful postscript to the 160th Melbourne Cup as his stable-mate and last year’s Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) fractured his fetlock less than two furlongs from home and was subsequently euthanised.
Speaking live on At The Races from Ireland, the former Irish champion jockey Joseph O’Brien was quick to praise Jye McNeil, who made his first ride in the Melbourne Cup a winning one. He said, “Jye gave the horse a fantastic ride and all credit goes to Mark Power and to Sean Corby, who looks after Twilight Payment, and the team of lads we have had down in Australia for the last month or so. This is the icing on the cake for them.”
Bred and originally trained by Jim Bolger, Twilight Payment won his first five races in the colours of Jackie Bolger and joined O’Brien’s team last July after being bought by Lloyd and Nick Williams. He made his first trip to Australia shortly after that and finished 11th in last year’s race. During a fruitful summer of 2020, he won the G2 Curragh Cup for the second year running and, fittingly, the G3 Vintage Crop S.
O’Brien continued, “This was the first year I’ve had a full preparation with him—he came to us halfway through last season—and his form was good all through the summer. He ran a couple of huge races at the Curragh. I thought he might have been given a little bit more pressure for the lead, but the horse has incredible heart and he just kept running all the way to the line. He has an incredible will to win.”
The 27-year-old trainer landed his first Melbourne Cup in 2017 in his second season of training. He subsequently won the Irish Derby with Latrobe (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who is also owned by the Williams team, and recorded a first success at last year’s Breeders’ Cup with Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}). This season he also claimed his first British Classic success when Galileo Chrome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) won the St Leger.
He added, “I can’t thank Lloyd and Nick Williams enough for everything they do for me. It’s a fantastic result for them also. I’m hugely privileged to train for the people I train for and to have the horses that I have. It’s a tough game, as everybody knows, and there’s a fine line between the top and the bottom.”
Jye McNeil said that his Melbourne Cup debut left him “overwhelmed with emotion”.
The 25-year-old added, “Joseph wanted me to be a step ahead of the field and really get them chasing. I encouraged [Twilight Payment] to go forward, that was the plan. Then he just found such a lovely tempo at the top. It was just a matter of amping the rhythm up at just the right stage and I’m glad it all worked out.”
The travel and quarantine restrictions that have added extra complications to international racing this year meant that Charlie Fellowes was also watching from afar at his home in Newmarket. As ever, he was full of praise for his stable star Prince Of Arran. He said, “The last two years I’ve felt that we’ve been beaten absolutely fair and square so you can only come away feeling proud of what the horse has achieved. This year, not taking anything away from the winner or the second, but I just feel that the trip we had, especially coming round the bend, being pushed wide and not getting quite the clearest run in the world, maybe he might just have got there, but it’s unfair to say that. I just felt that this was possibly his year.”
Fellowes continued, “He’s done so well and he’s the most incredible horse. I’m incredibly lucky to have a horse like him and I will never have one like him ever again. He looks after himself and always has done, which is I guess why he’s running at such a high level still at the age of seven. He just needs to look after himself for a year or two more and maybe we’ll go out there again next year. He’s a really intelligent horse and he’s always very interested in what’s going on around him, but he’s also a cool customer and very relaxed. I think the hotter conditions and the faster track played to his favour today because he loves those conditions and he handles them better than a lot of other horses do.
“He’s a wonderful horse and the key now is to make sure we enjoy him and that he’s able to race but that we don’t put the horse’s wellbeing at risk. That’s the important thing.”
Pedigree notes
Twilight Payment was the second foal of the Oasis Dream (GB) mare Dream On Buddy (Ire), who won twice over a mile on the all-weather for the late John Hills and is a half-sister to the Jim Bolger-trained dual Group 2 winner and Irish Oaks runner-up Banimpire (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}). The siblings were bred by Pat O’Kelly’s Kilcarn Stud. At the end of Banimpire’s Classic season of 2011, Bolger bought her year-older half-sister for 240,000gns.
Now a seven-time winner, Twilight Payment is her sole winner but his half-sister Bandiuc Eile (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) earned black type when second in the G2 Debutante S. behind Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy) in 2018. Now in foal for the first time to Profitable (Ire), Bandiuc Eile is entered as lot 1618 in the Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale.
Twilight Payment’s grandam My Renee (Kris S) was a dual listed winner and is herself a grand-daughter of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Detroit (Fr) (Riverman), who in turn produced fellow Arc winner Carnegie (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells).
A third Group 1 winner for Bolger as breeder within a fortnight following the victories of juveniles Mac Swiney (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) and Gear Up (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), Twilight Payment was the second Melbourne Cup winner for the former Bolger trainee Teofilo, who is also the sire of Godolphin’s 2018 winner Cross Counter (Ire).
fonte : TDN
Joseph beats Aidan again as Twilight Payment holds on to win the Melbourne Cup
Joseph O’Brien denied dad Aidan again in the Lexus Melbourne Cup as Twilight Payment held off the late charge of Tiger Moth under an inspired ride from the front by Jye McNeil.
Twilight Payment, O’Brien’s second Melbourne Cup winner after Rekindling in 2017, was in front throughout and could not be reeled in by Tiger Moth, while Prince Of Arran ran another brave race for trainer Charlie Fellowes to finish third.
The race was sadly marred by the death of 2019 Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck after he sustained a fractured fetlock, the seventh death in the race in the last eight years.
With no spectators and owners in attendance due to Covid-19 restrictions ‘the race that stops a nation’ took place without the usual pageantry in its 160th year, but the recent domination of British and Irish-trained runners continued, with the result mirroring the outcome of the 2017 running when Rekindling beat Aidan O’Brien’s Johannes Vermeer.
McNeil, having his first ride in the Melbourne Cup, took Twilight Payment to the front early and he stayed there, with Finche fading away as he kicked clear entering the straight, and Tiger Moth and Prince Of Arran could not get there in time. It was a remarkable record seventh win in the race for Twilight Payment’s part-owner Lloyd Williams.
British and Irish-trained winners of the Melbourne Cup
2020 Twilight Payment (Joseph O’Brien)
2018 Cross Counter (Charlie Appleby)
2017 Rekindling (Joseph O’Brien)
2002 Media Puzzle (Dermot Weld)
1993 Vintage Crop (Dermot Weld)
An emotional McNeil, whose jockey partner Jess Payne gave birth to their first son earlier this year, said: “There’s too many emotions, it’s a very big moment. I’m not worried about the [empty] grandstands at all, just to be able get the opportunity from the Williams family and from Joseph O’Brien to partner Twilight Payment, it’s very overwhelming.
“It was always the plan to be forward, obviously with where he was in the market I wasn’t feeling a lot of pressure, but when you have got to go forward like that there is some pressure to get it right. Thankfully it all came together.
“I was trying to use my voice to encourage him as much as possible. It was a matter of hanging on and he was very tough.”
O’Brien, watching from home in Ireland, said: “Jye gave the horse a fantastic ride. All credit goes to the team of lads we have down there in Australia for the last month or so. They have done a fantastic job with the horses down there, they have all run with credit. This is the icing on the cake for them.
“This was his first year with a full preparation with us. He came to us halfway through last season. He ran a couple of huge races at the Curragh. I was a little bit worried today he might have got a little bit of pressure for the lead a bit more than what we had hoped but the horse has got incredible heart and Jye gave him a fantastic ride and he kept fighting all the way to the line.
“I can’t thank Lloyd and Nick Williams enough for everything they do for me. They are both incredible and this is a fantastic result for them also.
“I am hugely privileged to train for the people I train for and the horses that we have. I really appreciate the support and the success when it comes, but it is a tough game as everybody knows, and it is a very fine line from the top to the bottom and we are very appreciative.”
Click here for the full Melbourne Cup result
At just 27 years of age, O’Brien is forging a second remarkable career as a trainer following his exploits in the saddle, with a second Melbourne Cup success, 27 years after Dermot Weld became the first Irish trainer to win the race with Vintage Crop, adding to an unbelievable CV of big-race wins including victories in the Irish Derby, Irish Gold Cup, St Leger, Galway Hurdle, Galway Plate, and triumphs at the Cheltenham Festival and the Breeders’ Cup.
Reflecting on once again denying his father Aidan a first ever win the Melbourne Cup, O’Brien added on Sky Sports Racing: “We both realise how hard it is to win on the world stage in these big races, but I am very lucky that I have been able to win a couple of big races.
“Dad has been very lucky, he has won a lot of big races, I’d be delighted for him if he had won, and I’m sure he is for we having won. We do our best on the track and what happens out there happens.
“I was really too nervous to see what was going to happen. I could hardly watch, but it was a fantastic ride by Jye and a fantastic effort by all the lads with the horse.”
Three-time Melbourne Cup winner Kerrin McEvoy got within half a length of the 25-1 winner on Tiger Moth, and said: “We were able to get across into a nice spot. We dropped in and got a nice lead and he travelled really well. The winner kept running, I just had to pick up to get into the race, which he did, but the winner was just a bit strong today.
“It was a great run for a young horse having only his fifth start in a race. He’s run really well.”
However, McEvoy has been fined €50,000 and suspended for 13 meetings for breaching whip rules aboard Tiger Moth.
Jamie Kah, a head behind Tiger Moth on Prince Of Arran, who has finished third, second and third in the race, said: “He was super unlucky. He really deserves it. He just had no luck on the turn.”
Prince Of Arran’s trainer Charlie Fellowes hinted a fourth attempt could be on the agenda for next year, tweeting: “Incredibly proud of Prince Of Arran. Another wonderful run in Australia’s great race. Thank you Aled Beech for looking after him so well, thank you Jamie Kah for a lovely ride, thank you to the Obaida family for sending him to me to train. 4th time lucky next year?”
fonte : RacingPost
