There’s more to TAB Melbourne Cup night than the world’s greatest greyhound race.
While Hard Style Rico and his trainer Luckie Karabitsakos rightly claimed the headlines for his near perfect race, there were plenty of other highlights across an action packed card.
On such a memorable night of racing, it was fitting that there were 12 winning trainers across the 12 races, and 25 trainers shared in the over $1,000,000 in prize money on offer.
Here’s a look at some other things you may have missed on greyhound racing’s night of nights.
Simon Told Helen is still a star
Simon Told Helen entered the final as a well-supported favourite and he shouldn’t lose any admirers by running second.
The four-time group 1 winner ran near identical times to his heat, proving it was going to take a herculean effort to defeat him in the final.
| Heat | 5.05 | 18.55 | 29.260 |
| Final | 5.05 | 18.59 | 29.294 |
His 29.294 time would have been fast enough to win all but three Melbourne Cups in history (Hard Style Rico 2020, Dyna Double One 2015, Dyna Tron 2011).
His times were also very similar to his run in the Cup Night Sprint on the corresponding night 12 months earlier, which is further testament to both the greyhound’s ability, and to trainer David Burnett’s ability to keep the greyhound performing at such a high level over an extended period of time.
| Cup Night Sprint | 5.08 | 18.48 | 29.358 |
Also keep an eye the runs of Tommy Shelby and Tiggerlong Tonk – after finding each other through the first turn they surged around the outside to finish third and fourth respectively.
Another Cup favourite goes down
The TAB Melbourne Cup hasn’t been kind to favourites.
Simon Told Helen was the ninth favourite out of the last 11 Cups to run a place, but just three have claimed the greatest prize in the sport. In fact, just three favourites have won in the last 17 years.
The punters haven’t been too far off the mark in that time however – the average winner’s starting price is $5.
Interestingly, 23 of the previous 48 Cups had been won by the punter’s elect.
Another race record falls
The underrated Weblec Ace won the group 3 Sir John Dillon Memorial in a race record 33.886.
However, it wasn’t the fastest feature 595m win on Cup night. Prior to the Sir John Dillon being moved to the Cup night programme in 2017 – the Cup Night Middle Distance showcased the sport’s middle-distance stars with Dundee Osprey winning the final edition of that race in 33.872.
Wallbanger also broke 34 seconds when winning over 595m last Friday night marking the second time in 2020 that two races over 595m have been won in sub-34 seconds on the same card, and the fourth time since the start was installed in 2010.
It’s also second time it has happened on TAB Melbourne Cup night – the same night Dundee Osprey ran the arms off the clock, a handy up and comer named Fanta Bale went 33.984 in a grade 5.
On any other night…
Spare a thought for the connections of Zipping Rambo.
The 30 month old was making his Sandown Park debut and narrowly missed catching the in form Eagles Nest Egg by the barest of margins.
That close a margin is heart breaking in itself, but the time he ran makes it doubly so.
His official time of 29.102 is the fastest time ever run without winning a race, good enough for the 30th fastest time ever at Sandown Park. Unfortunately for his connections, Eagles Nest Egg was good enough for the 29th fastest ever winning in 29.096.
Arizona Eye catcher
Arizona Eyes turned in one of the runs of heats night when storming home to run second to fastest heat winner Tiggerlong Tonk. His time of 29.278 was just 0.018 seconds slower than Cup favourite Simon Told Helen’s qualifying time, good enough for the 6th fastest time of the night.
He was first reserve for the $435,000 to the winner TAB Melbourne Cup, and due to different selection criteria was second reserve for the $25,000 to the winner 3 RSN Cup Night Sprint. Instead, he lined up in a $7000 to the winner graded race and scored in 29.218.
It took a while, but he got there
Shamrock Boy’s path to Provincial Plate victory was… unconventional.
He actually competed in the 2019 series, running seventh in a heat in the Cranbourne leg before winning a grade 7 at Tier 3 level the following week.
He’d win just three more races in 27 starts over the next 12 months, however two of those victories were at Sandown Park including an impressive 29.36 gallop at the start of November, his first win in eight months.
After running third in his 2020 Provincial Plate heat at Cranbourne, he won a ballot for a reserve spot in the feature final then ran 4th at Horsham last Tuesday. On the short back up and back on his best track at which he was one of only two finalists to have won at, he took out the Plate and more than tripled his career prize money earnings in the process.
Shamrock Boy became the first reserve to win a Sandown feature race since Flynn won the Bill Collins Speed Star on Sunday 5 May 2019.
Reserves double it up
Marshall’s King made two wins for reserves when he won the final race of the night, the first time two reserves won on the same card since Flynn and Dyna Patty took out their respective Speed Star races on Sunday 5 May 2019. The last time it happened at a graded meeting was on 27/12/2015.
They were just the eighth and ninth reserves to win at the track in 2020.
MORE ON THE 2020 TAB MELBOURNE CUP
How the Cup was won
Hard Style Rico retired to stud
TAB Melbourne Cup night recap
Full results and replays
