Ryan Moore in the Cup

horse pulled hard off a slow pace, but still had it too far back.

the poor start beat him

With that many runners on that type of course you are bound to get hard luck stories just as you do in the Chester Cup, it's just that we here don't laughably claim the Chester Cup is the greatest race in the world.

Yet with some of the less intelligent Aussie posters on here are bound to say it was Ryan Moore's fault and how it's suicidal to not ride at the course before and totally ignoring the rides Michael Rodd and Craig Williams gave Red Cadeaux and Dunaden......plus the jockey change on Americain made a lot of difference didn't it?

My £50

I remember Lester asking Vincent Obrien "do you miss me" when some Jockey botched a ride he was supposed to have ridden.
I would think Fallon should pose much the same question this morning.

Like Dettori, Moore is elevated to a height he has never really deserved and to see these supposed world class jockeys hold their horses up 20 plus lengths off a slow pace speaks volumes of truth about them than the wild nonsense that usually is piled on them.

Yet again it didn't take long for Dettori to gatecrash the winners enclosure to latch on to someone elses glory.
Hope I never see him in blue again.

I thought Ryan Moore rode a poor race (along with one or two others who tried to pass a mass of horses in the straight) and indeed I thought he knew it by not pushing for fourth in final furlong. That said he gets it right more times than most over here so best to put it down to one of those days.
Must admit felt sorry for Cumani who hasn't had the breaks in the M Cup, "bit further back than advisable" was his gentleman way of saying jockey ****ed it up.

was a s**** ride. Don't beat around the bush. 10 wide the home turn, laughable.

Mount Athos closing sectionals Melbourne Cup
last 1000m 57.96
800m 45.25
600m 33.55
400m 22.40
200m 11.46

from globalgallop

I love Ryan Moore,but that did not look good.

v poor effort i thought....did he really think he could make up that ground.....cumani v v gentlemanly to be fair after all taht effort

Cumani once said after the Coronation Cup, in which Jimmy Fortune on Alkaased had been caught out of his ground by Yeats, "I wasn't outfoxed! The jockey or the horse might have been outfoxed, but I wasn't!" Nonsense. Sympathy for Cumani?! Study the possible pace scenario before the race. Issue clear instructions. Take full responsibility, oh shrewd man.

Long way to go and not give everything,just the way it pans out sometimes

I think he did showed exactly what he has it that race, nothing.

You go 10 wide if you are forced to, just like Michael Rodd did, as did Craig Williams and Damien Oliver didn't have much luck in running either and did what many would have said Ryan Moore should have done, whereas Luke Nolen was always up with the early pace and yet finished out with the washing but none of those are English and so obviously won't get any stick from the Aussies. The only reason you have to go 10 wide is the race is a farce on that course with that many runners and if plenty are still in contention off the final bend......bear in mind too that Mount Athos had never run at 2miles before either so was maybe ridden with a bit more restraint to get the trip.

I'm not knocking the race itself and it's obviously the history and status of it along with the prize money that attracts that many runners but it would be a bit like running the Grand National at Chester and whilst all races will have a winner regardless, you are still bound to get a few hard luck stories.

Which course would you run the race at?

Apart from the fact I'm not really too familiar with many Aussie courses so really wouldn't know for sure, there's nothing wrong with the course itself but just the conditions of the race ensures a big field and that's not really ideal on a course like Flemington once that happens.

Epsom isn't really the ideal course for a race like the Derby either so it wasn't a dig at anything Aussie, I'm just saying that in a big field in either race you can have hard luck stories and someone has to take the blame for that and it's usually the jockeys. One of the biggest hard luck stories in racing was Dancing Brave's Derby but a combination of a big-ish field causing the jockey to go wide, meaning the horse not only ran father than the winner but also got unbalanced on the camber, meant the jockey got all of the blame for the defeat and not the circumstances......which is basically the case here with Ryan Moore too.

You see it time & again in races & jockeys never seem to learn. No pace in the race, horses held up out the back, then a crazy sprint turning in. Absolutely no chance of winning from where Moore found himself. When races develop like this year's MC, throw away the form book. A dream for bookies, of course, & why most drive home in Mercedes.

Yet if Moore had raced up with the pace and faded he would have been equally crucified like Fallon was on Yeats for being up there and going for it too soon and especially as Moore's horse Mount Athos was racing at 2 miles for the first time and wasn't certain to see out the trip.

We're all geniuses once the race is over.

I tend to blame the trainers.Jockeys are given instructions. If they don't ride to those instructions and lose the trainer will be furious.
If they do, and lose, the trainer won't say a thing.Of course,the instructions should leave room for the jockey to try different tactics if things don't pan out as planned in the first furlong or two.Which trainers do that who knows?
Flemington has a very short stretch and unless there is a furious early pace you're stuffed if you hold up at the back.This years race was about as exciting to watch as a class 6 hcp on a tuesday afternoon in the middle of winter at Southwell.

ima_mazed66 Mount Athos was 4th in the Ces last year over 2m2f so where do you get the '' racing at 2 miles for the first time and wasn't certain to see out the trip.'' from ?

Poor ride.

Fair enough Sir Epicure Mammon about the Ces and also spotted since your correction that it also ran in the Chester Cup too but I had a quick check on its last few runs before I wrote that but obviously didn't check closely enough as from memory I thought 1m6f had been the most it had gone after stepping up from 1m4f, as I remember backing Brown Panther against it.

The poor ride is debatable though and with 24 runners on a turning track they can't all make the running or be up with the pace or else some would be going numerous horses widths wide, so to go around close to the rail means going in Indian file or in pairs and will inevitably mean some are off the pace.

Like I said though, plenty of others rode the same race as Ryan Moore and others rode up with the pace but still finished behind him and that's despite his horse getting a few bumps too. Had the field been 14-18 runners instead of 24 then he probably would have won or at the very least gone close as he lost a lot more ground by having to go so wide due to the field size compared to what he was beaten by.

I`m with you 66. Ryan Moore has gone half way round the world to ride a bad race. Joke. Horse just not good enough on the day.

Connections seemed less than happy.

Bad luck tends to have that effect.

you guys can blame anything you want, the track, the travel, the jockey, the crowd, the commentator, the guy selling the drinks in the back of the bookie's ring.. whatever

fact of the matter is that it was a slowly run race and nothing back in the pack had a chance, if the race was run in europe then of course there would have been pace in the race but there would of also been 1 runner in the race with absolutely no intent on winning the race but only to setup the race for his stable mate, it's the risk you run

that's what you get when you try to take on the world, your horse has to prove he is the best horse in the race and sometimes that will mean doing things which don't normally happen