Race favourite Foxstar has won the 1700m TAB Sportsbet Australia Stakes
It’s been a turbulent few days for Hugh Bowman but he’s at least back on some sort of a high after winning race two on Melbourne Cup Day at Flemington.
Bowman rode Sangster to win the Victorian Derby on Saturday before having to cut plenty of weight in anticipation of his ride in the 2011 Melbourne Cup.
Unfortunately though that ride hasn’t eventuated with Mourayan scratched this morning leaving Bowman high and dry.
He’s at least salvaged something form the day though with the favourite Foxstar getting up to win the 1700m TAB Sportsbet Australia Stakes.
The pace was hot early with Femina Fashion driving across from the outside gate to take the lead.
She held that advantage over Who’s Ready in second until they made the turn at the top of the long straight.
A pattern is already emerging on Melbourne Cup Day with riders electing to swing out to the middle of the track rather than saving ground up the inside.
That’s exactly what Foxstar did in company with brave mare Vintedge.
The two were produced together with 200m to go and Vintedge looked to have the race won all the way up to the line.
In fact the connections of Vintedge can count themselves unlucky as Foxstar never really got in front of their horse except for a fortunate bob of heads right on the line.
Still though that’s what counts and Foxstar gets the win in race two on Melbourne Cup day at Flemington.
Bowman says he always has plenty of confidence riding a horse trained by Guy Walter.
“When he brings a horse to a race like this you can guarantee if it doesn’t win it’ll run very very well,” he said.
Bowman could have held his rival up in traffic if he’d chosen to but it was a bold move to continuing running his own race.
“Maybe if I had to tried to hold him in longer I wouldn’t have won,” he said.
Walter agrees that it was a somewhat fortunate win, in fact at first he didn’t think he got there.
“I thought she’d got beaten,” he said.
That said the result is on the board giving her what now is quite an impressive overall record.
“She’s not a bad mare, she’s only had 18 starts and that’s her 6th win,” he said.
“I may back her up Saturday in the Matriarch Stakes.”
Foxstar paid $4.60 for the win with online bookmaker Luxbet while Vintedge was $2.60 for second and the fast finishing influential Miss in third at $2.50.
Flemington Race 2 Results – Melbourne Cup Day
| Finish | No. | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Weight | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 5 | FOXSTAR(13) | Hugh Bowman | Guy Walter | 54.5 | 1-43.11 |
| 2nd | 3 | VINTEDGE(6) | Damien Oliver | Chris Waller | 56.5 | 0.1L |
| 3rd | 6 | INFLUENTIAL MISS(3) | Steven King | Pat Carey | 53.5 | 2.1L |
| 4th | 1 | FEMINA FASHION(16) | Brenton Avdulla | Trevor Whittington | 58.5 | 2.4L |
| 5th | 11 | COLD STEEL REIN(5) | Stephen Baster | Leon Corstens | 53.0 | 2.5L |
| 6th | 7 | MANILA JEWEL(2) | Danny Nikolic | David Hayes | 53.5 | 3.5L |
| 7th | 8 | APENNINE(4) | Luke Nolen | Mark Jackson | 53.0 | 3.9L |
| 8th | 15 | TANTRUM(1) | Michael Walker | Nigel Blackiston | 53.0 | 4.9L |
| 9th | 2 | SMOULDER(9) | Craig Newitt | Graeme & Mark Sanders | 57.0 | 5.4L |
| 10th | 14 | FINE CALIBRE(15) | Dean Yendall | Aaron Purcell | 53.0 | 7.2L |
| 11th | 16 | YASEY SAN(7) | James Winks | John Pascoe | 53.5 | 7.3L |
| 12th | 12 | YOU I FIND(14) | Kathy O’Hara | Lee & Shannon Hope | 53.0 | 9.0L |
| 13th | 9 | GAIL(12) | Nicholas Hall | Robbie Griffiths | 53.5 | 9.1L |
| 14th | 10 | PARIS MEMORY(10) | Glyn Schofield | Tony McEvoy | 53.5 | 10.1L |
| 15th | 17 | WHO’S READY(8) | Corey Brown | Alan Scorse | 53.0 | 11.1L |
| 16th | 13 | EXCHANGES(11) | Kerrin McEvoy | Anthony Freedman | 53.0 | 11.3L |
| Src | 4 | ROYAL COMMANDS | Dwayne Dunn | Mathew Ellerton & Simon Zahra | ||
| Src | 18 | CABASSO | Dean Holland | Russell Cameron | ||
| Src | 19 | ORIENTAL RUBY | Gerard Moloney | |||
| Src | 20 | KIM HEAVEN | Bart Cummings |
