MARK Kavanagh used a south-west racing reference to measure his success as a trainer after Shocking's hard-fought Melbourne Cup victory yesterday at Flemington.
Kavanagh, a former jumps jockey, recalled riding at far-flung venues on Melbourne Cup Day in 1980 and '81.
"I've come a long was from riding in a hurdle race at Hamilton on Melbourne Cup Day in 1981 and from pulling beers working part-time in a pub in Mount Gambier," he said.
"I dreamed of going to the Melbourne Cup when I was a six-year-old. Little did I think that one day I'd train the winner of the race.
"I never thought when I was kicking horses home at Casteron, Coleraine and Hamilton that I could train the winner of the Melbourne Cup."
Kavanagh, who rode over jumps in south-east SA and south-west Victoria during the late 1970s and early '80s, revealed his early appetite for racing came from a high-profile neighbour when he was lived in Glenelg - Bart Cummings.
His mother was a cook for the Cummings stable.
Yesterday, he left Cummings out in the cold.
Shocking's win was a milestone for jockey Corey Brown who was beaten a year ago on Bauer when Viewed got the verdict in the closest finish ever recorded on camera.
After settling in the second half of the field, Brown drove Shocking ($10) to the lead inside the final 200 metres of the gruelling 3200-metre journey but Godolphin's Crime Scene ($41) made a fight of it.
Eventually, Shocking got the upper hand and went on to win by three-quarters of a length with Mourilyan ($21) bursting out of the pack to run third, another one-and-a-half lengths away.
"Good things happen in racing, bad things happen," Kavanagh said.
"You can win races, you can have no luck.
"You've got to keep getting up and keep focused.
"It hasn't hit me, I've won a Melbourne Cup. It's every trainer's dream."
Kavanagh's 2008 Cox Plate winner Maldivian suffered a campaign-ending injury earlier this spring while Whobetgotyou was the unplaced favourite in this year's Cox Plate and illness ruled pre-post Victoria Derby favourite Shamoline Warrior out on race morning.
But those disappointments were a distant memory, as was Brown's defeat last year.
"It's an incredible feeling," Brown said.
"I've had to watch the replay of last year's race for a year and now I can forget about it. I've won the Melbourne Cup."
Punters flocked to emerging stayer Alcopop, sending him out the $4.80 favourite ahead of Viewed ($6.50) with the pair sixth and seventh respectively.
Cummings had two other runners - Allez Wonder ($26), which failed to see out the distance and finished 16th, and Roman Emperor ($11), which weakened to finish 21st of the 23 runners after over-racing early.
Cummings was aiming for his 13th cup win and Kavanagh admitted he had learned by observing the master trainer's methods.
"I've watched Bart and he peaks them on the day and I'm proud that I did the same," he said.
"It was a perfect ride from Corey."
Kavanagh's rise to prominence came after a gamble he took three years ago to set up a Flemington stable after training successfully in Adelaide.
"I got a block of stables but in order to have them I had to rent 26 stables and I only had one horse," Kavanagh said.
"But we started to win races and things picked up.
Yangery trainer Jarrod McLean says he learnt a lot from saddling up his first Melbourne Cup runner Kibbutz, which earned connections $115,000 for finishing ninth.
"I'm over the moon," McLean said after his momentous cup debut.
"The connections have been really great to me. I suppose they'll be delighted.
''I don't think the horse had that much room in the straight but it was still a great run."
McLean said he'd like to bring Kibbutz back to Flemington next spring as a six-year-old.
"I've learnt a lot from the experience and I'm sure the horse has," he said.
''The connections are thinking of giving him a good break now but I wouldn't mind getting him ready for the Sydney Cup at Easter or the Brisbane Cup in June.
''I've coped with today's experience better than I thought I would. I can remember when I first started out as an owner-trainer I couldn't eat my breakfast the day I had a runner in a race.''
McLean acknowledged overwhelming local support in the cup lead-up.
Former Colac trainer John Sadler was also content to pick up $115,000 for connections when his runner C'est La Guerre finished eighth.
"We had every chance in the run," Sadler said.
''It was a good ride (by Nick Hall). The horse is not going as good as last year. He could have peaked last year but it was still a good effort this year."
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff
Twitter