THE MELBOURNE CUP.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 868, 25 October 1906, Page 6

THE MELBOURNE CUP.

This year the problem of finding the winner of the Melbourne Cup does not appear to be quite so difficult of solution as is generally the case. True, it is a hard race to win, and the favourite has often tasted the sting of defeat. Still, we have plenty of recent form to go upon and this most unmistakably points to the fact that the great two mile event will be fought out between Solution and Poseidon. Nothing else appears to have the slightest chance of defeating this pair, and although, of course, there may be a boil-over it is somewhat difficult to see how this can possibly happen if both mare and colt are landed at the post in their best racing trim. When the pair met in the Metropolitan Handicap at R andwick Solution conceded 71b to Poseidon, and also gave him a handsome beating. The colt turned the tables on the daughter of Soult in the Caulfield Cup, in which, however, he was in receipt of 261 b. In the Melbourne Cup the difference between them will be but 121 b, and it remains to be seen whether that will bring them together. It has to be borne in mind that the time of year in not a particularly good one for mares, and therefore Solution may possibly be not quite at her very best. Poseidon’s great run in the Caulfield Cup shows him to be a very fine colt indeed, possessed of brilliant galloping powers and staying ability. Furthermore, the weight-for-age scale is much in favour of a good three-year-old. Still, Solution, despite her 101 b penalty, will only be carrying 101 b less than weight-for-age, and there is no doubt the handicapper originally threw her into the handicap on the assumption that she was a non-stayer. We have yet to know whether she can see the two miles right out, and in this respect the colt may show to more advantage. Present prospects point to the big handicap proving a great battle between the pair, and much as we should like to see a win go down to the credit of the Auckland-bred mare, it may be that Poseidon will prove a trifle too good for her. Of the others Booran, Dividend, Simoda and Noreen may run most prominently.