MELBOURNE - Yasunari Iwata did not look old enough to be on a racetrack as he sat quietly at yesterday's Melbourne Cup press conference.
Delta Blues' winning rider blinked continuously. So did the rest of Australasia.
The first surprise is that he is 32 years old.
The secondis that he has ridden 3000 winners.
And by far the greatest surprise is that Japanese horses produced a Melbourne Cup quinella.
It was no surprise Pop Rock emerged as a major threat, but Delta Blues and his rider, who until the weekend had a total knowledge of Australia as "a country down there", was a surprise to even his connections, although they were not saying a great deal about that afterwards.
Through an interpreter, Iwata admitted he had been "extremely nervous" when offered the ride in the A$5 million ($5.8 million) feature race. "But I knew I had to meet the challenge."
Japanese riders are used to massive crowds on big racedays, but Iwata admitted the collective frenetic energy of a Melbourne Cup day shocked him when he arrived at Flemington.
"But, thankfully, once the start was made I forgot about nervousness."
Iwata might look like a schoolboy who has been caught eating his lunch during class, but he clearly has much more steel about him.
He rode a superbly aggressive race, particularly against a tough competitor like Damien Oliver on stablemate Pop Rock.
"I knew I had to meet the challenge by riding positively."
Oliver and Pop Rock looked certain to win when they dropped off the rest of the field at the 275m and headed out after Delta Blues, who had pressed forward much earlier.
Pop Rock might have beaten his equine compatriot but for lugging in under the pressure of a hard ride by Oliver. Delta Blues, named after a style of music like his stablemate, looked to be holding the other horse.
Iwata wasn't confident over the line, despite the half-head margin looking clear-cut enough to most of the 106,691 spectators on track.
"I thought perhaps I might have won, but it wasn't until Damien reached over and grabbed my arm that I knew for sure."
His proud wife, Chika, was with him at the press conference.
