LARRY'S VIEW - NO CIGAR, BUT THE MELBOURNE CUP HAS GIVEN ME HEAPS OF GOOD MEMORIES
By Larry Cassidy | Friday, November 2, 2012
Larry Cassidy currently has forty-two Group 1 successes behind his name. He is a multiple Premiership winning jockey having taken out three titles in Sydney and one in Brisbane. Larry’s View, the personal blog of this top class rider will appear on horseracingonly.com.au every Friday, workload permitting.
One of the shows on TVN this week was a feature on the ‘Top Ten Melbourne Cups in the last thirty years.’
It was humbling for me to realize that I was involved in one way or another in no less than three of the races selected for the programme … and, would you believe it, they ranked in the first three spots on the list.
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My first real memory of the Melbourne Cup was in 1983. I was thirteen years old and Jimmy was riding Kiwi. I just remember being in my boss’s lounge and sitting down and watching the race and, you know, Kiwi was tailed off.
I’d seen how he had won the Wellington Cup earlier that year and other races that Jimmy had won on him … how he had a tremendous finish. I knew spotting the leader twenty lengths was no problem for him and I had my eyes basically glued on him.
I was watching him slowly make up ground and he got to about six lengths off them. Just short of the clock tower Jimmy pulled him to the outside and Kiwi just erupted.
That was a massive thrill … my brother winning the Melbourne Cup. Every time I see that race replayed it gives me goose-bumps!
That was my first real memory of the Melbourne Cup and what the enormity of winning the Melbourne Cup was all about.
Kiwi’s win came in at number three on TVN’s Top Ten list.
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Then there was my first ride in the Melbourne Cup.
I picked up the ride on a horse called Na Botto for trainer Peter Hollinshead in 1990. I was twenty then, the same age that Jimmy was when he won on Kiwi.
Kingston Rule won the race and I got beaten two lengths and run fourth.
That was just a massive thrill. Just to be there right in the middle of the action in a Melbourne Cup and run fourth.
I was still living in New Zealand at the time and, as you can imagine, to be part of such a huge occasion in front of such a large crowd was a quite incredible experience.
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I’ve now had thirteen or fourteen rides in the Cup. My best result was a third on Oompala in 1994.
My memory of that race was that the going was so, so heavy … and it was pouring with rain.
I had two or three sets of goggles on. With about 700m left to go I had to pull my last set of goggles down and couldn’t really see too much after that, but we obviously still had to run home at normal speed.
I had to come out a bit wide with a couple of other runners … only through the fact that they couldn’t see and I couldn’t see … and Jeune got a run up the fence and won the race.
I think Paris Lane ran second and I ran third. We both came home strongly, but Jeune had stolen it down the inside. That day I was about a head away from second place and just over two lengths off Cup glory.
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Another great Cup memory for me was riding Portland Singa. I had won the Brisbane Cup on her. I won the Ipswich and the Coloundra Cup’s on her … you know, all for Neville McBurney who I’d had a hell of a lot of luck with.
To ride her in there in what was to be Makybe Diva’s third Melbourne Cup win was great.
Portland Singa eventually ran sixth, but I was in front until about the 200m mark.
You always had to go sooner rather than later of Portland Singa … and she sort of dashed clear. I think she gave the owners a hell of a thrill. I know she gave me a thrill but, of course, the first horse to come past me was Makybe Diva and Portland Singa was the next mare to finish.
So, apart from the thrill the ride gave me, that race also allowed me a real, close-up view of Makybe Diva’s history-making run as she powered her way to third successive win in the Cup. I was right there when, to use a play on Greg Miles words, ‘a champion became a legend.’
Not surprisingly, Makybe Diva’s win in 2005 topped TVN’s top ten listing.
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Makybe Diva wasn’t the only ‘great’ I’ve been close enough to touch in the running of a Melbourne Cup.
The mighty ‘Might And Power’ gave me that privilege in 1997. Jimmy was on the champion and I rode Linesman in the race.
As the field turned for home I moved Linesman up to join Might And Power in front prompting the commentator to call, ‘they come to the turn … where Linesman has raced up to join Might And Power … the brothers Cassidy turn around the bend together.’
Hard to believe isn’t it? What a moment that was for us.
Linesman was obviously not the equal of Might And Power. He gave the champion plenty of cheek though for most of the way down the long straight but couldn’t find enough to see it out to the line.
The 1995 Cup winner Doriemus went past me inside the 200m and closed on Might And Power with every stride. The two flashed through the line together and Greg Hall famously punched the air and celebrated what he thought was a victory on Doriemus as the horses pulled up.
Greg got it wrong though. Might And Power had held on.
That race, the Viewed win in 2008 and last year’s finish between Dunaden and Red Cadeaux … isn’t it amazing how close a margin a 3200m race can come down to at the line.
Might And Power’s win was ranked second on TVN’s Top Ten.
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So, yeah, you’d like to be a winner but, in truth, any participation in the Melbourne Cup leaves you with great memories.
Having said that, it is, of course, every jockey’s dream to win one.
I’m probably running out of time, but you never know what is around the corner … and there is no pressure anyway because my daughter did say to me, ‘don’t worry dad, I’m going to win one for you.’
Till next week,
Larry
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