Cup experience to bring about ‘more mature’ Great House
A three-day back-up and an unseasonably warm spring day put paid to Great House’s Group 1 Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) aspirations as the Highclere Australia runner finished 13th to his Chris Waller-trained stablemate Verry Elleegant in the race that stops the nation at Flemington.
By conceding 12th in the last few strides to Group 1 winner Miami Bound, Great House’s owners just missed out on the $160,000 pay cheque that comes from finishing in the top half of the Melbourne Cup field.
Not that you would know it, though, according to Highclere Australia racing manager Andrew Hawkins.
“It’s weird, I expected to be leaving here disappointed but instead I’m leaving here so grateful and proud,” Hawkins said from Flemington last night. “And the owners I’ve spoken with, they are just so happy to have had a runner and the prizemoney really isn’t a factor.
“I think the owners understood it was going to be a tall order to back up after three days. Some horses can do it, but rarely do the imports handle it. And when you have a class mare there like Verry Elleegant, even with the weight pull, you still need everything to go right and everything in your favour.
“Once it was as warm as it was, too, I immediately cast my mind back to earlier in the year when he was a muck lather at Rosehill and ran accordingly. Unfortunately, he was a muck lather again and – on a day when we needed him to conserve as much pre-race energy as possible – he was a mess.
“It was one of those things and I’m sure he will come back a more mature horse next year.”
Great House will return to New South Wales with his stablemate Verry Elleegant in the coming days, with both set to head to Wild Oaks, near Camden, for a well-deserved spell.