Australia: Without A Fight wins a thriller in the Caulfield Cup
Without A Fight, who was not cleared by veterinarians untilFriday, made a late, six-wide charge and outdueled West Wind Blows to win by ahead Saturday in the nail-biting, 146th running of the Group 1, US$3.15 millionCaulfield Cup, the first of the three biggest races in the Melbourne SpringCarnival.
An Ireland-bred, 6-year-old gelding sired by Teofilo and ownedby Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, Without A Fight (8-1) was reported to have lookedlame in his left front leg Thursday. He needed the approval of a RacingVictoria veterinary panel before he was allowed to go forward in Saturday’s racethat covered 2,400 meters, about 15 yards short of 1 1/2 miles, on turf ratedgood.
Jockey Mark Zahra, who had to decide Saturday between ridingWithout A Fight and 2022 Melbourne Cup (G1) winner Gold Trip, made the rightchoice for his second victory in the Caulfield Cup. His first with VerryElleegant came in 2020, when COVID restrictions left the grandstand empty.
Anthony Freedman, brother of four-time Caulfield Cup winnerLee Freedman, teamed with his son Sam to train his first victor in what is billedas the richest, 1 1/2-mile turf handicap in the world.
Starting from post 7 in the field of 18 horses ages 3 andup, Without A Fight was in mid-pack going past the wire for the first time. Hestayed there along the rail going up the backstretch around the teardrop-shaped,left-turn course.
Zahra tipped Without A Fight outside in the sweeping, farturn as the field closed in on early pacesetter Bois d’Argent (89-1) approachingthe 350-yard homestretch. Four-year-old West Wind Blows, another Teofilogelding, already had made up the most ground with a stalking trip after he andJamie Spencer got out of the gate slowly from post 2.
As West Wind Blows flashed past Right You Are (41-1) and intothe lead with a furlong to go, Without A Fight was approaching on his outside about1 1/2 lengths back and making up ground quickly.
In the last sixteenth of a mile, Spencer veered West WindBlows a path out for an eyeball-to-eyeball duel. Without A Fight did not flinch,finally getting a nose in front in the last 50 yards of what turned out to be avictorious trip.
Without A Fight carried 122 pounds in his first Group 1victory. Second-place West Wind Blows, with 119, finished two lengths ahead oflate-closing Gold Trip (5-1), the top-weight entry at 129 who settled for third.Bois d’Argent was another 1 3/4 lengths back in fourth.
The winning time was 2:26.45, the fastest running of theCaulfield Cup since Master O’Reilly’s 2:26.15 in 2007.
Gold Trip was touch and go to start Saturday after trainersCiaron Maher and David Eustace had said they were worried about the ground notbeing soft enough. Now with his impressive, third-place performance, he hasshortened to odds of 4-1 at Ladbrokes Australia to repeat Nov. 7 in the Melbourne Cup.Ireland-based stayer Vauban, a Royal Ascot winner who is 6: 3-2-1 going atleast the two-mile distance of the US$5.05 million race, is the 7-2 favorite.
The 1 1/4-mile, $3.15 million Cox Plate (G1), widely regarded as the southernhemisphere’s best weight-for-age race, is the next major race of the SpringCarnival. It will be run next Saturday at Moonee Valley.
