THE MELBOURNE CUP

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 282, 12 November 1936, Page 2

THE MELBOURNE CUP

What Riders Said

O. Phillips, 27-year-old rider of the Melbourne Cup winner, says an Australian exchange, appeared happy, but otherwise unconcerned, as he returned to scale after riding Wotan, but he admitted on dismounting that he was highly excited. He served his apprenticeship with W. Burke, a Melbourne trainer, but in his fairly extensive experience he had never been on the winner of a race nearly so important as tlie Cup, nor had he filled a place in the rich Flemington two-miler. “I was satisfied some distance from home that Wotan would win and I put my whip away long before the finish,’’ he replied, when asked his impressions of the race. Continuing, Phillips said that he experienced a perfect run, following Mala practically all the way until he went past that colt near the home turn. Ho says that Wotan fully deserved the win if only for the great finishing run he unwound. Phillips is not related to Jack Phillips, the bookmaker, in whose colours Gaine Carrington and Peter Jackson, half-brothers to Wotan, raced late in their careers. He has been successful at Randwiek, but his strongest recollection of race riding on that course was the fall he had from Uruuaway in the Doncaster of 1930, won by Venetian Lady. While on the ground practically the whole field galloped over him, and although his jacket was ripped from his back he escaped serious injury. Phillips also recalls an outsider other thau Wotan on which he was successful. Ho had the mount on Any Day when that horse won the V.R.C. Railway Highweight a few years ago and paid a tote dividend at the rate of something like 120 to 1.

Andy Knox, the rider of the Derby winner and Cup favourite Talking, was disappointed, but he declared that tho colt would have justified his favouritism had he not been disposed to lug out most of the way. "He is a better horse than his position at tho finish would indicate, and it will not surprise me if he wins the Cup as a four-year-old,’’ he concluded. Harold Badger felt certain he would win on Silver Standard, the eventual runner-up, when he took the lead in the straight after he had experienced a perfect run through. It was a case of victory going to the better stayer on the day in tljo opinion of Badger, who, by the way, was on Northwind when that gelding beat Silver Standard in the Caulfield Cup. "Balkan Prince was galloped on in running,’’ said H. Skidmore, "but I do not think the incident made the difference between our running third and winning, I had a good run all the abut the horse was not equal to ing fast enough to beat the first two. ’ ’