Flemington ‘beautiful' for final day of punters' nightmare carnival
A big crowd was on hand on Cup day.
Flemington is in "beautiful" shape going into the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival, which has been a character-building one for punters.
The average winning price through the 29 races of the carnival so far is $10 — a figure on par with past Cup week results.
Only three starting price favourites, Victoria Derby winner Riff Rocket ($2.20), Foxy Frida ($2.40) and VRC Oaks star Zardozi ($2.70), have saluted across the first three days of the carnival.
The running rail will be at the eight-metre position on Saturday for the triple Group 1 Champions Stakes Day meeting to cover "most of the wear and tear" from 28 races contested already.
Your 2023 Penfolds Victory Derby winner is RIFF ROCKET.
A powerful win by the promising three-year-old in the $2 Million Group 1 #DerbyDay feature.
— Victoria Racing Club (@FlemingtonVRC) November 4, 2023
Another nine races will be run on Saturday, headlined by the $3m Champions Sprint (1200m), $3m Champions Mile (1600m) and $3m Champions Stakes (2000m).
Track manager Liam O‘Keeffe said the surface gave jockeys options in the straight and circle races.
"Still some marking up the inside of the straight, as you'd expect heading into day four of the carnival, all in all, it still presents like a beautiful surface," O'Keeffe said.
"For the straight racing I think the horses will use the middle to outside part of the course looking for some fresh ground.
For the circle start on the fence and they might just edge off a little later in the day."
A sunny day with a top of 25C should draw another bumper Flemington crowd.
Victoria Racing Club remains on track to host more than 250,000 people across the four-day carnival after racegoers flocked to Derby Day (73,056), Melbourne Cup Day (84,492) and Oaks Day (46,596).
