Your Thesaurus Won’t Help You Now: Cup Ramblings and the One Year Anniversary

The title makes no sense, so don’t try and add rhyme or reason to it. The tides have turned against me right now and I am shooting hard boiled blanks. I called upon my thesaurus to find a title but it was not to be. Salvation is a long way from a thesaurus when you have words to write, an ever-closing deadline to meet and a vicious hangover from a 48-hour bender to overcome.

The Buffalo Club is full of hate right now and that won’t subside until this headache disappears. But sleep is not an option. Those at the presses are waiting and those who sign the cheques are unimpressed. They yell down the line of the Cup time and the need for a whole heap of words. The Cup soon runneth, I guess, and it will go with my words circulating through the punting community or not. And, at any rate, sleep is for the weak.

Enough of the self pity and the general loathing…

It is, of course, Melbourne Cup week and that has traditionally been a week of joy and excitement based on heavy gambling, wild drinking and a sense of partaking in history.

And, of course, the Melbourne Cup marks the one year anniversary of your well-worded author being signed on by the Kiton Suit wearing heavyweights at Punting Ace.

One year to the day, or close enough at any rate, I received The Call from Matt, who was phoning from the Punting Ace Penthouse. After yelling at who I assumed was his butler or some other minion dampening the Punting Ace aura, he demanded to know if I was available for Punting Ace duties. In the midst of a five-set classic, white sports socks raised to knee level and sweat soaking through the Pat Cash headband, I mumbled we would talk when my gladiatorial tennis clash was completed. “I’m a busy man and I have enough riding on this match to make it worth the sweat. Writers don’t get the chance to run into this much cash often and I will not be distracted”.

Sometime in the next week, I got a hold of Matt and Jess, who I’m led to believe were entertaining a veritable blizzard of Australia’s societal elite. Rumour has it that Alan Bond may have been there. A quick conversation, a late night flight to the Punting Ace compound and a meaningful agreement that I could write as negatively about Shane Watson whenever I damn well pleased and contracts were signed, hands were shaken and The Deal was Done.

“Tip a winner” they screamed, as I boarded the plane. I just smiled. Winners are never that hard to find and I am, of course, a professional.

And so it was. Makybe Diva made the nut and history and kept us altogether here at Punting Ace. The struggle had begun…

So here we are again. One year on. There is no Diva this year and the certainty is long gone and the money won on same, long spent. But there will be a winner. That is the tradition, anyway. So there is no point getting stuck down Memory Lane. Onward and upward. An eye to the future, an eye to now.

Now is the 2006 Melbourne Cup and by my reckoning, there are only six horses with legitimate claims. Of the locals, only Tawqeet and the Lloyd Williams duo of Activation and Efficient can win. And of the overseas raiders, on a crusade for Cup glory and Australian domination, European giant Yeats and New Zealand challengers Mandela and Kerry O’Reilly look to be the only viable bets.

The Caulfield Cup, as always, remains the most relevant formline for The Big One. And the run of that race was undoubtedly Activation. After a sensational run in the Metropolitan, where he flashed home after being caught three wide the trip, he got home out wide at Caulfield to run a very good fourth. He was downed by Tawqeet both times but if the runs were switched in each race, Activation would have a Metropolitan and Caulfield Cup victory on his record. He will have no problems with the added trip and the wide draw actually assists, as it means he will be ridden well back, a racing style that always sees him at his best. Activation is a grand hope. He is the best of the Williams/Rogerson trio and should be bet heavily at the $21.

Caulfield Cup winner Tawqeet must also be included. He has done nothing wrong recently, coming with strong bursts to score in the Metropolitan and then the Caulfield Cup. With David Hayes in his corner, he seemingly has destiny on his side, so he must be treated with the utmost respect. Saying that, there is too big a discrepancy in price between he and Activation and as such, he is probably a touch of unders at the moment. I may get a swift fetlock to the groin area for those remarks come Tuesday afternoon, but so be it.

The other classy Caulfield Cup runs came from the Japanese tandem of Delta Blues and Pop Rock but neither look good bets for The Cup. Delta Blues was as honest as a Tim Rogers song in the Cup, but the addition of a Japanese hoop won’t help his chances while the staying credentials of Pop Rock are in some question, to my eye, after a good but not all that positive Caulfield Cup effort, where he seemed to get every hope late.

The two really good rough hopes are New Zealand stayers Kerry O’Reilly and Mandela. Neither have the class of the Great Kiwi Hope of 2005, Xcellent, but neither have to chase down Makybe Diva either. Both went sensationally in the Geelong Cup, with Mandela taking the chocolates and Kerry O’Reilly flashing home for fourth. Mandela got a cruisy run and was a little flattered by the performance but he still scored with dominance and must be considered some threat. Kerry O’Reilly is a little more classier than his compatriot and his Geelong Cup run had more merit than the winner. He has sound weight-for-age form, the gun draw and at the big odds, can find himself slugging this out.

The other two chances are the two most interesting runners of the race. Neither can be backed but neither can be dismissed lightly.

Yeats travels over from the Emerald Isle with a sizable reputation and a string of money behind him. But so have a lot of names, from Oscar Schindler to Mamool, and none of those so-called “best stayers to run in Australia” got the job done. He has a stellar record but on the performances of the many highly touted Europeans who have traveled here and left sans Cup and reputation, he cannot be taken at the shorts.

Also looking to defy history is Derby winner Efficient. His win was as dominant as any Derby winner in recent times and he looks a star with the Australian turf at his feet. But it has been 65 years since a three year old has won the Derby-Cup double and he is the worst weighted horse in the race. He is too short to speculate on but he can win. The one thing for sure is that running him in the Melbourne Cup will finish him as a horse. Not too many recover from a Derby-Cup effort as a spring three year old.

The clear value of the race is Activation. Your studious author will be on, for good or ill. A reputation has been staked, as well as the sums of money deposited with a great variety of bookmakers. So when the starter reaches for the button and the nuts are getting laid out, bear that in mind. The case is not as convincing as last year but it is sound and at the odds on offer, any punter with a decent eye and the common sense of Alf Matthews knows the bet is good.

Tedeschi’s Tips