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| Editor: Elliot Dean | | Writer: Marcus Walta | | Writer: Janet Bastow | | Photographer: Matthew Smith | |
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Kav's Nightmares Replaced With Cox Dream |
Kav's Nightmares Replaced With Cox Dream
By Elliot Dean
Over the past 12 months, Melbourne trainer Mark Kavanagh has had many restless nights, regularly reliving the experiences that occured on Caulfield Cup day last year. It was on that day his boom galloper, Maldivian, was scratched in the barriers only minutes before the Group 1 race.
Although he wishes to forget, Kavanagh still remembers the scene clearly. His horse, who was favourite for the Caulfield Cup, returning to the mounting yard, blood streaming down his neck. It was a low point in Kavanagh's career.
But a year is a long time in racing, and those traumatic events were all but forgotten at Moonee Valley on Saturday, as Maldivian past the post first to win the Cox Plate, Australasia's most prestigious weight-for-age event.
The speedy 6 year old hit the front on the final turn and was never headed, winning by a length from Zipping, with favourite Samantha Miss a neck away third.
Kavanagh put his skills to the test with a number of gear changes and training changes in the lead up the big race. "It was always the plan to school him over jumps and put the blinkers on for the Cox Plate and I did exactly as I said I would", he said.
"It's a tried and true formula with Zabeels and this horse's form read two from two at Moonee Valley over 2040 metres."
The move certainly paid off as Maldivian finally put the previous years' Caulfield Cup tragedy to rest, and join the likes of Phar Lap, Sunline and Makybe Diva as winners of the prestigious event.
2008 WS Cox Plate result
1. $11.00 MALDIVIAN Trainer: M A Kavanagh 59 Jockey: M Rodd
2. $7.00 ZIPPING 59 D Nikolic
3. $4.60 fav SAMANTHA MISS 47.5 G Boss
4. $ 31.00 Zarita 55.5 D Dunn
5. $16.00 Theseo 59 N Rawiller
6. $21.00 C'est La Guerre 57.5 S W Arnold
7. $11.00 Alamosa 57.5 C Newitt
8. $31.00 Gallant Tess 57 C W Brown
9. $4.80 Princess Coup 57 O P Bosson
10. $14.00 Master O'Reilly 59 V Duric
11. $13.00 Sirmione 59 D Oliver
12. $41.00 Raheeb 59 B Shinn last.
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