Excess Enthusiasm Lights Up Derby Day

The swarm of 86,000 racegoers heading into Flemington racecourse Saturday largely observed the traditional black-and-white dress code of AAMI Victoria Derby Day and were accompanied by a slate-grey sky as early-morning thunderstorms broke the good weather enjoyed in Melbourne throughout the week.

But it takes more than foul weather to blacken the mood of Australia’s most colorful trainer Gai Waterhouse, who sent out two runners for the G3 Lexus S. and duly bagged an automatic berth in the line-up for Tuesday’s G1 Emirates Melbourne Cup when Excess Knowledge (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) first got the nod on the line over the Darren Weir-trained Zanteca (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and later survived an extended stewards’ enquiry to parachute into the 24-runner field, having been only number 30 in the pecking order on Saturday morning.

If Weir rued the short half-head margin that separated the duo, the Victorian champion trainer can reflect that he was himself the beneficiary of the ‘win and you’re in’ status of the Lexus only 12 months ago when his Signoff (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}) made the cut for the Cup and went on to finish fourth behind Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}).

Half the field for this year’s Melbourne Cup are trained outside Australia, and Excess Knowledge started his racing career in England for his breeder Khalid Abdullah under the care of British champion trainer John Gosden. He remains unpenalized for his Lexus success on 51kg (112 pounds) and now has a serious chance of handing his late sire Monsun a third successive Melbourne Cup win. The 2013 victor, Fiorente (GB), also arrived at the Waterhouse stable from Newmarket after initially being with Sir Michael Stoute at Freemason Lodge just a few doors along the Bury Road from where Gosden trains.

Waterhouse, who also has Wednesday’s G3 Bendigo Cup winner The Offer (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) in the Melbourne Cup, greeted Excess Knowledge’s imminent return to Flemington with her customary ebullience, saying, “He’s so well-weighted in this Cup. Is he starting? Yes he is! Can he win? Yes he will! Back him!”

It’s hard to imagine a raceday having such a major impact on another as Victoria Derby Day has on the Melbourne Cup three days later. With a maximum field of 24 and no reserves allowed for Australia’s great staying prize, the two influential contests on Derby day–the Lexus and G1 Longines Mackinnon S.–regularly have connections of horses listed in the low twenties in the pecking order on the edge of their seats right through Saturday.

Fifteen winners of the Mackinnon have gone on to win the Melbourne Cup just three days later and it was traditionally the favoured Cup prep for the race’s most decorated trainer, the late Bart Cummings, but this year’s renewal saw not one of the 15 starters hold an entry for Tuesday. The winner, Gailo Chop (Fr) (Deportivo {GB})–a breakthrough debut Group 1 victor for provincial French trainer Antoine de Watrigant–will instead head next to Hong Kong as he continues his ambitious international campaign for Terry Henderson’s OTI Racing and assorted partners, which include some of the Black Caviar (Aus) entourage. The 4-year-old was bred by former owner Alain Chopard at his Haras des Faunes in south-west France, the home to the Night Shift stallion Deportivo for three seasons. Gailo Chop’s early-season stakes wins at three, in the Listed Prix Maurice Caillault and G3 Prix La Force, caught the attention of Henderson, who went into partnership with Chopard on the gelding and saw him add another Group 3 victory to his resume before shipping him to New York for the GI Belmont Invitational Derby, in which he finished fourth to Mr Speaker (Pulpit). His form when second behind Solow (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) this spring in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan was augmented by a third Group 3 strike in France, but he could manage only an eighth-place finish from his first Australian foray in last weekend’s G1 Cox Plate.

De Watrigant, who trains a small string of horses south of Bordeaux at Mont de Marsan, appeared stunned as he witnessed his stable star’s gutsy victory but said with quiet confidence, “When it rained I knew it would suit him and I am very happy, this is my first Group 1–we were second to Solow in France earlier this year. Australia has been very welcoming and I’m thrilled to be here. Last week was not a good track [Moonee Valley] for Gailo but this track is more like Longchamp and he was able to keep fighting in the straight.”

Fight he did, for Gailo Chop–who was very warm in the preliminaries thanks to the onset of a Northern Hemisphere winter coat–took up the running early in the 2000 meter contest and was headed in Flemington’s long straight by the eventual runner-up Rising Romance (NZ) (Ekraar) but got back up to gain the verdict by half a length.

The major sprint of the day, the G1 Coolmore Stud S., was regarded by many to be a penalty kick for the imposing and remarkably laidback Lonhro (Aus) colt Exosphere (Aus) but Chris Waller, who has won the last two runnings of the race with Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}) and Brazen Beau (Aus) (I Am Invincible {Aus}), proved dominant again, this time with the flashy chestnut gelding Japonisme (Aus)–appropriately enough a son of the Coolmore stallion Choisir (Aus). He returned to scale in the famous cerise silks of the Ingham family, who welcomed their hero with a riotous reception.

With next year’s Royal Ascot on the cards for Japomisme, Waller doesn’t have to worry about curtailing the sprinter’s career for stud duties, saying that the horse’s gelded status simply “alters everyone’s bank balance”.

While the Godolphin team had to contend with the disappointment of Exosphere’s fourth-place finish, earlier on the card they had been rewarded with a dazzling performance in the G2 Wakeful S. from Ambience (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}).

In this season alone in Australia, the late Street Cry has been responsible for the outstanding distaffer Winx (Aus), winner of last Saturday’s G1 W. S. Cox Plate, as well as G1 Caulfield 1000 Guineas winner Stay With Me (Aus), a daughter of the top-class racemare Miss Finland (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}). The great shuttler’s loss to the Darley operation was underlined once more as Ambience routed her opposition by 3 1/2 lengths at Flemington.

Only 24 hours earlier, Darley Australia’s Managing Director Henry Plumptre gave the toast to racing at the Carbine Club’s enjoyable Derby Eve lunch in Melbourne and recalled during a self-deprecating speech how he had to sit and suffer through breeders’ awards during a dominant few seasons for champion galloper Pierro (Aus) (Lonhro {Aus}), who was bred by Darley but offered for sale as a foal. Plumptre has had to endure no such hardship with Pierro’s half-sister Ambience, who will be a valuable addition to the Darley Australia broodmare band in years to come.