Australian sport isn’t renowned for measured “on one hand, and on the other” coverage, usually preferring extremes of either world beater or bum. So, should Bondi Beach win the Melbourne Cup in the early hours of Tuesday morning, his trainer Aidan O’Brien can ready himself for adulation.
Renowned as the world’s most successful trainer, Ireland’s perennial champion is used to global acclaim, but a mostly unhappy history in the race that famously “stops a nation” feeds a sense that some Aussies need convincing in their own backyard before buying fully into that reputation.
Ballydoyle raid
Much of that links back to 2008, when a three-pronged Ballydoyle raid was anticipated with trepidation by locals, only for it to fizzle out disastrously in circumstances which produced a controversial steward’s enquiry over the riding tactics employed on O’Brien’s horses.
Summoned back to Flemington from his city hotel, the famously low-key Irishman was brought as close to publicly losing his cool as he ever has by what he regarded as hostile questioning. This ultimately resulted in no action being taken, but left some down under wondering what all the ballyhoo about this guy was about.
A few years later, O'Brien ludicrously found himself apologising to the legendary "Cup King" Bart Cummings about his training of the Aussie import, So You Think, even though he won five Group 1 races with the horse in Europe.
Such diplomatic self-deprecation doesn’t always play well in hard-bitten Australian sport, even if O’Brien’s Coolmore bosses are major players there, and although Adelaide’s 2014 Cox Plate victory subsequently provided evidence about what the ballyhoo is all about, success in Australian sport’s most coveted prize will be regarded as irrefutable proof.
Mahler’s third in 2007 is the closest O’Brien has got to landing the Cup, and Bondi Beach hardly set Flemington on fire last year when finishing only 16th. However this time the $6 million highlight is getting the full attention of a team famous for getting it right when it counts.
Leniently treated
This is a handicap and Bondi Beach actually comes into this Cup more leniently treated than a year ago, while having given every indication in four runs in Ireland this season that he could be on the verge of producing his best ever form. He has been trained specifically for this and, crucially, has a good draw in stall five.
In contrast the draw looks disastrous for Ireland's two other hopes. Wicklow Brave is widest of all in 24, and although Heartbreak City's jockey is renowned as "The Magic Man" in Hong Kong, the local consensus is that Joao Moreira will have to cast a rare spell to win on Tony Martin's runner from box 23.
The continuing disparity in some racing attitudes – despite 23 years of European involvement in the Cup – can be gleaned, however, by Martin's own view that Willie Mullins has the key to the race in Wicklow Brave. "I think whatever beats him will win," Martin told local media.
Mullins is taking consolation in that among Wicklow Brave’s quirks is perhaps a liking for his own company, which racing wide could actually suit.
Hardly outstanding
Ireland’s champion jumps trainer also believes
Frankie Dettori
is due a Melbourne Cup win, a remark that could have something to do with the hardly outstanding effort the Italian put in on
Max Dynamite
a year ago.
That Mullins horse finished runner-up when he looked likely to win with a clear run. It was a second runner-up placing in the race for Dettori, who will be having his 15th Cup ride and was here on that fateful day in 1993 when Vintage Crop famously transformed the race into an international event.
“The work the horse did [on Saturday] was a huge bit of work. If he can overcome his draw, and repeat that work, he’s going to give a great account of himself,” Mullins said.
“Winning the Grand National, to me, was top of the pops. This would be right up there with it. Having come so close, you want to win it even more.”
However when the gates open at 4am on Tuesday morning, plenty will believe that the Irish horse named after Sydney’s most famous sand can skip to success over Melbourne’s most sacred turf. And they won’t all be Irish either.
