THE MELBOURNE CUP: FAME GAME IN THE SPOTLIGHT BUT A BOXED TRIFECTA MAY BE THE WAY TO GO

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, November 3, 2015

For those who have their annual flutter on the Melbourne Cup, it is all about getting a return on the big race itself and there are plenty of attractive odds available if you can find a horse to upstage the short-priced favourite Fame Game.

The Japanese entry, ridden by the Hong Kong based Australian star rider Zac Purton, has been all the rage in the betting market, coming in dramatically from an original call of 20-1 to his current odds that hover between 4-1 and 5-1. If he starts at that price Fame Game will be one of the shortest priced favourites to challenge for the Cup.

Much was made of Fame Game’s build-up run in the Caulfield Cup, not least by Racing Victoria’s Chief Steward Terry Bailey who called in the connections of Fame Game to explain why the horse had loped along at the back of the field before coming home with some zest over the final stages to finish in sixth place.

More particularly Bailey questioned Purton’s vigour in the home stretch

Purton responded by saying that the instructions to were to ride the horse where it was comfortable and to not race too wide and ride for a bit of luck.

Trainer Yoshitada Munakata confirmed that Fame Game, ‘tries harder when he’s racing between horses.’

Stewards were able to confirm, by viewing previous runs of Fame Game in Japan, that the horse has been ridden through traffic on numerous occasions.

Bailey and his team of stewards decided to take no further action on the Caulfield Cup run but they did leave connections with a final message, saying, ‘we would expect, if this is the way the horse is to be ridden, we will see the same tactics in the Melbourne Cup.’

So Fame Game’s Caulfield Cup run went into the record books with a touch of controversy surrounding the way his race unfolded on that day.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to the eve of the Cup and the news breaks that Munakata is will be informing stewards of change of tactics with regard to Fame Game in the Cup. Munakata said, ‘I think we might inform the stewards we will ride the horse further forward.’

No surprise there.

In spite of Bailey's comment, why anyone should be locked into a tactical strategy used for a race over 2400m (the Caulfield Cup) when they now tackling a 3200m contest makes no sense at all ... and whatever anyone thinks of the Caulfield Cup performance, there is no rule prohibiting anyone from changing strategy moving forward, as long as that change of intent is announced beforehand as prescribed in the Rule of Racing.

How will this development impact in the result?

Well that is for each individual to try and put the pieces of the puzzle together.

The bookmakers are running scared though. Be it pure weight of money or the expectation of significant improvement on the horse’s part in the Cup, they have set Fame Game at not particularly attractive odds given the risk factors.

The stable’s stated preference of looking to let the horse push in-between runners (it would be another point of contention if Purton were to pull him out wide today) is a strategy that can easily come unstuck.

Then there is the threat of rain and a possible track bias (as was in evidence at Flemington on Derby Day). Not to mention twenty-three determined opponents.

Few will stay out of the punt though.

Everybody wants to have a go at backing the Cup winner.

So do you go with the hype and bet on Fame Game or do you step outside the comfort zone of the main fancy and get more bang for your buck if you select the upset result.

Or maybe spread your options and take a boxed trifecta (or a percentage thereof).

The suggestion would be to box Criterion (2), Fame Game (3), Max Dynamite (8), Trip To Paris (10), Preferment (15) and Almoonquith (17) and hope that the longest priced runners in that group fill the first three places.

It’s your call.

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