EMBROILED in the long running cobalt saga with Mark Kavanagh and subsequently cleared by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Danny O’Brien is a man redeemed. “Everyone in the racing game has their ups and downs,” said O’Brien. “The main thing is you keep persisting, keep working and sometimes you have a bit of luck.

“I really can’t believe it. I feel incredibly blessed to have a horse good enough to be in it and then for him to be ridden so beautifully by Craig,” added O’Brien.

“I thought it was an incredibly courageous thing for him to do. I’ll have to watch it again but I’d suspect it was the winning move, I don’t think he would’ve won if he had gone back. That’s why you put guys like Craig on, he dances to his own beat, backs himself in.”

O’Brien, who also trained the Star Witness half-brother to Vow And Declare reflected also on the task of winning the Melbourne Cup. “The way the race has changed over the last decade it has certainly became a more elusive target for a local trainer and to do it with a locally-bred horse is not something that is going to happen very often. It is getting further and further out of reach but today shows it can still be done.”

Williams Cup completes dream

SUSPENDED in 2011, Craig Williams could only watch on as Dunaden and Christophe Lemaire lifted the trophy. This year’s win has lifted that cloud and in many respects fulfilled this internationally successful jockey’s greatest ambitions.

“It was a privilege to ride him today,” said 42-year-old Williams. “We had a difficult barrier draw. The instructions, we trusted him. We know what we can do. It’s great to be associated with a great horse like this. I’m so lucky to be able to share it with my team, my close friends, people around me and most importantly my family.”

“I WANT to cry,” lamented a shattered Frankie Dettori on dismounting from the Lloyd Williams syndicate-owned Master Of Reality, trained by Joseph O’Brien.

Dettori already had two seconds and a third before Tuesday’s eventful finish. “I’m more gutted for Frankie than for myself,” said O’Brien, “I don’t know if Frankie is ever going to win this race.”

Early race leader Twilight Payment faded to finish 11th for Joseph O’Brien and Latrobe was 18th. “Just got back in a slowly run race. Hard to get into it,” said James McDonald. A sentiment echoed by Johnny Allen on Downdraft (22nd), though he doubted he got the two miles.

Paradiso breaks too slow

AIDAN O’Brien and his team have paid dearly for Il Paradiso’s tardy start which on the balance, looks to have cost him the race.

He was the only horse to break 58 seconds for the final 1,000 metres, and one of only two (Surprise Baby the other) to break 34 (33.85 seconds) for the final 600.

Add to that the late race interference and neck margin to the winner and the ‘what ifs’ are obvious. Heartening for the Ballydoyle camp is that the ‘form model’ that delivered Rekindling’s victory in 2017 has nearly repeated that result.

Ryan Moore elected to ride Magic Wand and had a similar lament to many. “She had no luck, got an early bump so we were back further than we wanted and they went too slow up front.”

Magic Wand is entered for today’s Group 1 MacKinnon Stakes over 2,000 metres with Moore staying on. Hunting Horn was positioned fourth in the run one off the fence, but again suffered with the tempo.

“I needed to get cover and I couldn’t. The pace was too slow,” said Seamie Heffernan.

No Cup double for Mer De Glace

DAMIEN Lane’s dream spring concluded with the Japanese-trained Mer De Glace finishing a brave sixth.

“Massive. He wasn’t entitled to finish off like he did after the slow tempo. He finished well late,” said Lane. Similarly, William Buick was pleased with last year’s winner Cross Counter who was eighth, one spot behind Finche. “He ran a huge race. Just slowly away,” said Buick.

The Richard Hannon-trained Raymond Tusk was ninth in running but not suited to the tempo also and weakened to 16th. “Beautiful position but the race was too slow,” said Jamie Spencer.

Rostropovich injury

TAILED off last in the Melbourne Cup, it was later revealed that Rostropovich sustained a fractured pelvis in the race.

Potentially a nightmare outcome for Racing Victoria with an intense focus on horse welfare at present, the early signals point to a full recovery for the Irish-bred son of Frankel, now trained by Hayes, Hayes and Dabernig. By mid week he was reported to be bearing weight on all limbs. Six horses have died on Cup day since 2013, heightening sensitivities around the issue.

Walker

Prince Of Arran’s jockey Michael Walker was fined $10,000 – one of the largest fines in the race’s history – and suspended for seven meetings for over use of the whip. The rider was upset by the subsequent comments on social media.