Melbourne: Long-serving Godolphin handler Saeed Bin Surour took Sky Hunter’s disappointing run in Tuesday’s Emirates Melbourne Cup in his stride and said that it will not prevent him from returning to challenge for the spoils next year.
Sky Hunter, one of two Godolphin-owned horses among the field of 24 runners, could only finish 22nd while Hartnell, who is trained in Australia by John O’Shea, finished in 15th position. Both horses did not benefit from the muddling pace and were unable to produce their best.
“Obviously it was disappointing, but there are many reasons that may have prevented Sky Hunter from running his race,” Bin Surour said.
“William [Buick] put him a good position and kept in touch with the rest. But he was hampered two furlongs out and seemed to lose interest in the race after that and began to drop out.
“At the end of the day he did not get the trip [3,200m], but we’ll take him back, see how he comes out of the race and then plan his schedule. Perhaps bring him back to Dubai.”
Buick said that despite being caught wide, the five-year-old son of Motivator travelled well. “He was three-wide but in a nice rhythm,” said Buick, who earlier this year won the Dubai World Cup aboard the Bin Surour-trained Prince Bishop..
“The pace was very stop-start which didn’t help. But the truth is he didn’t stay the trip.”
It was pretty much the case with Australian-trained Hartnell, who was also bidding to become Godolphin’s first winner of the Merlbourne Cup.
“He felt quite lethargic out of the barrier,” Godolphin pilot James McDonald said.
“But he travelled kindly after that. I was hoping Fame Game [favourite from Japan] would take me forward, but his run ended and I got a bump from one inside me.
“But I felt he bottomed out at the furlong, he just didn’t run it out.”
O’Shea admitted he was disappointed that Hartnell was denied the chance to give off his best. “It’s disappointing when it turns out like this, but we’ve still got a horse and he’ll be back,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dwayne Dunn, the rider of another Dubai-owned contender, Almoonqith, described Tuesday’s race as terrible. “It was just a terrible race for me. I got smashed up early and never got into a rhythm.”
Owned by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, the three-time Dubai Racing Carnival winner, raced towards the rear before he was asked for his effort. But he failed to make a good enough impression and had to settle 18th among a chasing pack of horses.
Shaikh Hamdan won the Melbourne Cup in 1986 with At Talak and again in 1994 with Jeune.
