Racing: Comeback king downs hot favourite

MELBOURNE - A wag in the crowd waved a placard saying "death, taxes and Lonhro". But there are no certainties in racing.

The A$3 million ($3.48 million) W. S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne on Saturday was meant to be an occasion to hail a new champion.

Lonhro went into the race with eight group one wins, a record of 22 wins from 29 starts - including 10 from his last 11 - and A$4 million in the bank.

But his knockers said many of the group one wins were in soft Sydney company. He was a disappointing sixth in last year's Cox Plate, the one real doubt about him heading into the race.

And could a fast-run 2040m at Moonee Valley be his undoing?

Jockey Darren Beadman didn't think so. He had argued for a small reprieve from a two-week suspension that would have denied him the ride.

The judicial appeal authorities granted his wish, substituting the last day of his suspension with a A$30,000 fine.

Beadman said it was worth it to honour a promise he made to Lonhro's main owner, Jack Ingham, on Ingham's deathbed two months ago that he would ride the horse to victory in the Cox Plate.

It was going to be a fairytale that stamped Lonhro as a champion of the Australian turf.

But nobody told Fields of Omagh the script. The six-year-old had broken down twice with serious leg injuries and most doubted he would have enough left on his comeback to cope with the mighty Lonhro.

But when the South African mare Paraca compounded with 600m to run after setting a hectic pace, Fields of Omagh went to the lead with Defier on his hammer.

Lonhro loomed out wider, ominously. But in the straight, just when it seemed his famous sprint would make his rivals seem second rate, he laboured. The accelerator was stuck.

Beadman rode him vigorously and the horse battled bravely, but he couldn't reel in Fields of Omagh or Defier.

Fields of Omagh prevailed by a neck from Defier, with Lonhro half a length away third.

Race caller Bryan Martin, a part-owner of Fields of Omagh, was professionally impartial in his call, showing no outward signs of going berserk, but his 24 co-owners were. Berserk with joy.

Then Martin told listeners: "See ya. I gotta get outa here" and then yelled out over the course's public address system: "I'm coming down, guys."

Trainer Tony McEvoy, who took over as head man at Lindsay Park in South Australia two years ago when Peter Hayes was killed in a plane crash, called the six-year-old Fields of Omagh "a horse of great courage".

And no one could disagree. Horses just don't come back from two suspensory injuries and win a Cox Plate. Not before, anyway.

John Hawkes, who trains Lonhro, was magnanimous in defeat.

"You don't blame anyone when you get your chance," he told reporters.

Lonhro will now spell.

- NZPA