Aidan O'Brien could at least smile. Having seen Septimus, the horse regarded as Europe's supreme stayer, finish 18th of the 22 Melbourne Cup runners, he concluded he might have to try and do things differently.
"Maybe I'll go work for Bart Cummings for a while," O'Brien said.
As well as Septimus' dismal showing, O'Brien's other two runners, Alessandro Volta and Honolulu, finished 20th and 21st respectively behind the Bart Cummings-trained Viewed.
O'Brien could offer no excuses.
While he acknowledged the ground was more firm than he would have liked, he said none of his jockeys had complained about it.
"The ground was fast, we knew that. We were bothered about the ground," he said.
"But I'm not blaming anything."
The O'Brien team's performance didn't characterise the international challenge, with Bauer failing by a couple of centimetres and his stablemate Mad Rush running an honest race to finish seventh just behind the Dermot Weld-trained Profound Beauty (fifth).
French mare Varevees finished 14th.
For Luca Cumani, the result proved a repeat - if a closer one - of last year, when Purple Moon finished second to Efficient.
"I still haven't got it right," Cumani said.
"If I had I would be winning. But it spurs me on to try again."
Cumani can at least be satisfied that he is bringing the right type of horses to Melbourne from a stable that specialises in hardy, unexposed stayers who get into the Cup with suitable handicaps.
"I think we're bringing the right horses," he said.
"We just need to bring something that can run a nose faster than Bauer did."
Weld said he was pleased with Profound Beauty's effort, particularly off the fast pace set by the O'Brien trio.
"She's run to her ability," he said.
"She seems to have come through it well and I have no complaints."
Profound Beauty is likely to stay in Melbourne to run in Saturday week's Sandown Classic.
No excuse could be found for Varevees, who failed to handle both the hectic pace and the class of the race.
[ 本帖最後由 S.WEEK 於 5/11/2008 10:22 AM 編輯 ]作者:
S.WEEK 時間: 5/11/2008 10:20 AM
