Melbourne Cup Betting

Melbourne Cup winner Efficient will finish the season as Australia’s highest earning racehorse, based on his lone win at Flemington last November.

The son of Zabeel was the only horse to top $3million in earnings in Australia over the past 12 months and he will be out to repeat when he tackles the Melbourne Cup Odds for a second time this year, attempting to join the likes of Think Big, Rain Lover, Peter Pan, Archer and Makybe Diva as dual winners of the great race.

Four other horses topped $2million this season: Golden Slipper winner Sebring, six times Group 1 winner Weekend Hussler and the Cox Plate hero El Segundo.

Each will be back this spring chasing bigger riches.

Efficient is the early Melbourne Cup Betting favourite, but Weekend Hussler’s trainer Ross McDonald is adamant he wants to attempt the famous race with his budding champion and bookmakers continue to report strong interest from punters.

Weekend Hussler is yet to race beyond 1600m, but McDonald has no qualms about him going to the 2040m of the Cox Plate, the 2400m of the Caulfield Cup and even the 3200m of the Melbourne Cup.

In all, 13 horses earned $1million or more in Australia this season, with Efficient, El Segundo, Tuesday Joy and Forensics the only names that also appeared on the list for the 2006-07 racing season.

Unlike Australia, which races year round, Hong Kong take an annual break from racing and the season has just concluded.

Australian-bred sprinter Sacred Kingdom was edged out of the Horse of the Year honours by Good Ba Ba, but was awarded the Champion sprinter prize, following his win in the G1 HK International Sprint last December.

Sacred Kingdom is a son of Australia’s Champion Sire Encosta De Lago and is rated the best sprinter in the World. He was originally purchased for $200,000 from the 2005 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

Gai Waterhouse purchased his half-brother, by Fastnet Rock, for $350,000 at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Other awards of note in Hong Kong included Vengeance Of Rain being awarded the lifetime achievement award.

This son of Zabeel originally started his racing career in Australia, before going on to be the best middle distance performer in Hong Kong and a Group 1 winner in Dubai.

His sire Zabeel is the sire of last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Efficient, who is the early favourite for this year’s renewal (Bet On Melbourne Cup now)

Other Zabeel Melbourne Cup winners have been Might And Power (1997) and Jezabeel (1998).

Hong Kong’s Champion Sire went to New Zealand based O’Reilly for the first time.

O’Reilly is the sire of last year’s runaway Caulfield Cup winner Master O’Reilly, who is being aimed at the race again this year, in addition to another tilt at the Melbourne Cup, in which he was a well beaten favourite last year.  You can find the latest Melbourne Cup Odds!

It may not be the Melbourne Cup Odds, but it certainly provided a great spectacle when the Irish bred Kerdem slugged it out best to win the Queensland Cup on Saturday.
In a stirring duel, Kerdem eventually got the better of the tough performer Sky Biscuit to win the 3200m feature.

With third placed Rezone also in among the slug fest on a rain sodden Eagle Farm, it provided one of the better spectacles of the Queensland Winter Racing carnival.
Alas, 3200m races are becoming thinner on the ground as each season progresses, with authorities continuing to focus on shorter contests.

The Melbourne and Sydney Cups are now the only 3200m Group 1 events run in Australia each season. A few years ago there were five, but the Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth Cups have all been downgraded in recent times.

The Queensland Turf Club then gave the Brisbane Cup the indignity of a distance reduction (to 2400m) last year and the event has lost its gloss.

The Brisbane Cup has been a useful guide to the Melbourne Cup Odds, with the year of 2000 springing to mind, where Brew trailed home Yippyio in that race.

A few months later the pair were fighting out the finish of the Melbourne Cup.

Even though the horses fighting it out on Saturday’s Queensland Cup were hardly top class, the spectacle of a 3200m race is one of the best in racing.

But sadly they are becoming fewer and farther between.

Thank goodness we still have the Melbourne Cup to provide the highlight of each racing season.

Bart Cummings is looking ahead to a 12th Melbourne Cup after Scenic galloper Viewed spread-eagled his Brisbane Cup rivals by seven lengths at Eagle Farm yesterday.

The Brisbane Cup has been reduced to 2400m from 3200m in recent years, but yesterday’s race was a solid staying test through the muddy conditions and the four-year-old handled it easily.

Viewed is by Scenic, a son of Sadler’s Wells, who continues to dominate major races in Europe. On Saturday, his grandson New Approach (by Galileo) took out the English Derby, to give the line five wins from eight runnings of the Classic this decade.

Scenic is the sire of eight G1 winners in Australia but his best hope of a Melbourne Cup went awry when Universal Prince was scratched from the race in 2001.

Cummings last won the Melbourne Cup in 1999, when Rogan Josh became his 11th winner – and fourth that decade.

His previous winners are Light Fingers (1965), Galilee (1966), Red Handed (1967), Think Big (1974-75), Gold And Black (1977), Hyperno (1979), Kingston Rule (1990), Let’s Elope (1991), Saintly (1996) and Rogan Josh.

The great trainer notched his 700th stakes success in yesterday’s Cup and is only one win away from a career haul of 250 Group 1 wins.

Cummings was an inaugural inductee to the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

His son Anthony is now a leading trainer in his own right and won yesterday’s G2 Queensland Guineas with Turffontein in the race immediately prior to the Brisbane Cup.

The AJC Derby is often where bookmakers start when trying to work out Melbourne Cup markets later in the year.

Invariably, the Derby winner goes up as the early favourite for the great race.

It’s a trick bookmakers have been using for years. Never mind that the last horse to complete the Derby-Cup double was the mighty Phar Lap in 1930!

The 78 year gap between drinks seems to do little to douse punters’ desire to jump into the Derby winner each and every year.

Unfortunately the AJC Derby has lost its prestige in recent times, with the past two winners – Fiumicino and Headturner – having won just the one solitary race between them since winning the Derby.

Nom Du Jeu continued the great run of NZ-bred horses in the Derby – it’s now 14 of the past 25 to the Kiwis.

While history is against him coming back to repeat the dose in the Cups later in the year, there is a pointer in his form which may be able to be followed.

Nom Du Jeu was beaten 7.6lengths in the New Zealand Derby last month by C’est La Guerre.

Winning AJC Derby trainer Murray Baker had little hesitation in claiming that his charge was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, as he felt C’est La Guerre would have won the AJC Derby easily as well – and the formlines point to that being the case, as runner-up Red Lord was also among the beaten division in the NZ Derby.

So keep in mind the name C’est La Guerre when Cup markets come up later this year.

This Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas features a number of horses who are highly regarded in betting for this year’s Melbourne Cup.

The Guineas is a Group 1 race run over 2000m at Rosehill and has been won by some of the champions of the turf over the years, including Tulloch and Kingston Town.

Kibbutz is the current favourite at $16 in Sportingbet Australia’s latest market, but he is an absentee this autumn because of injury, hence won’t take his place in the Guineas field.

However Littorio, the horse that finished runner-up to him in the Victoria Derby, is among the Guineas fancies this Saturday and he is currently a $21 chance in Melbourne Cup betting.

Littorio was an unlucky second against older horses at his most recent start and is sure to have plenty of admirers on Saturday.

Another Guineas runner who is high up in Cup betting is Guillotine ($31) who put the writing on the wall when charging home behind Weekend Hussler in the Randwick Guineas last time out.

Guillotine is a half-brother to defending Melbourne Cup winner Efficient, who is rated on the top line at $16 with Kibbutz at the moment.

Littorio and Guillotine are sure to be among the favourites for the Guineas this weekend.

Another three-year-old with plenty of admirers is Largo Lad, who is now with the David Hayes stable. Largo Lad has always looked like 2000m will suit and he gets his chance on Saturday. He is currently a $41 chance in Sportingbet’s 2008 Melbourne Cup market.

The Rosehill Guineas though hasn’t been a great guide to the Melbourne Cup, with Saintly (1996) the last horse to finish in the first three that went on to win the Melbourne Cup.

To find the last horse to complete the Guineas-Cup double, you have to go back to Phar Lap, in 1930.

Melbourne Cup winner Efficient makes a one-off autumn appearance at Flemington tomorrow. Owner Lloyd Williams intends to only run in tomorrow’s Blamey Stakes before setting the Zabeel gelding aside for another tilt at the Cup in November.

Efficient did not win a race between last year’s Cup and the 2006 Victoria Derby and in doing so, became the first horse since Phar Lap to complete the year-to-year double.

He has met with some support in early betting for the Blamey, firming from $18 into $13.

Interestingly, his half-brother Guillotine was set to resume in Sydney tomorrow, but trainer David Payne scratched him after drawing a wide barrier. Guillotine is an early favourite for next month’s AJC Derby and considered by many to be a long term prospect for this year’s Melbourne Cup as well.

Perhaps a family quinella in 2008?

Efficient Won the Melbourne Cup 2007, at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. It was a fantastic climax to race, with Efficient making a 200 meter sprint from the outside of the pack, making up a seven horse deficit to win by a head over Purple Moon. This 4 year old, who was trained by Graeme Rogerson, run a truly fantastic race and sure put a lot of smiles on punters faces, when paying out odds of 24 -1 for the win and $7.40 for the place. Efficient won the Victoria Derby at the Melbourne Cup carnival last year but was only ninth to El Segundo in the Cox Plate at his last start. Efficient is already heading bets to starts this race as favorite next year.

Where they finished –

Place Horse Jockey
1St Efficient M Rodd
2nd Purple Moon D Oliver
3rd Mahler S Baster
4th Zipping D Nikolic
5th Dolphin Jo Mc C Lindop
6th On A Jeune K McEnvoy
7th Blue Monday N Rawiller
8th Master O’Reilly V Duric (Fav)
9th Sculptor Ms L Cropp
10th Lazer Sharp B Shinn
11th Douro Valley J Winks
12th Sirminone P Metens
13th Princess Coup N Harris
14th Tawqeet D Dunn
15th Eskimo Queen C Newitt
16th Scenic Shot C Williams
17th Black Tom P Hall
18th Sarrera S Murphy
19th Bluetigeroo L Nolen
20th Railings S Arnold
21st Tungsten Strike D Holland

The Melbourne Cup day is fixed for the first Tuesday in November, and this great Race is held in a Melbourne suburb called Flemington, which was named after a Butcher that once lived there.

The Melbourne Cup is known as one of the world’s greatest races and its History dates back to 1871, when the first ever Melbourne Cup Race was held. The Prize for winning this great race at the time was not a Cup at all but a hand beaten Gold Watch, 17 Horses started the race and the winning horse was called Archer, and he had walked 500 miles from his stable in Nowra, New South Wales, before running in this race.

Australia is a nation that likes its leisure activities and you can be sure that one 2 mile long race every year (The Melbourne Cup) will bring Australia to a standstill. In 2005 this already famous race became even bigger ‘if that was possible’ when Makybe Diva became the only three time winner of the race, this great mare had already set the record for winning the Melbourne Cup twice and she made History also by winning it a third time.

Melbourne Cup Winners from 2000 – 2007

Year Winner Jockey
2000 Brew K McEvoy
2001 Ethereal S Seamer
2002 Media Puzzle D Oliver
2003 Makybe Diva G Boss
2004 Makybe Diva G Boss
2005 Makybe Diva G Boss
2006 Delta Blues Y Iwata
2007 Efficient M Rodd