By MIKE DILLON
Champion trainer Bart Cummings won't be backing Ethereal to win today's Melbourne Cup.
She doesn't fit his theory.
Cummings has a lot of theories, but No. 1 on the list is that horses must have more than 10,000m of racing in a Melbourne Cup preparation to be able to
win.
With 11 Melbourne Cup wins behind him, Cummings is worth listening to.
At 7400m Ethereal has the least number of metres behind her this campaign of any of the 24 Cup runners.
The last winner who carried less metres (7100m) into the race to win was Empire Rose, who was prepared by Sheila Laxon's husband, Laurie.
None of which particularly interests Sheila Laxon.
She is a horsewoman. A former English junior equestrian rep. She cares only about the health of her horse. How happy Ethereal is.
Get the horse right, let the stats look after themselves.
Which is why she didn't want to take Ethereal into Saturday's $A500,000 Mackinnon Stakes for fear of jarring up the mare's legs or taking the edge off her bounce.
She talked to husband Laurie, now training in Singapore, and was advised to run in the Mackinnon, something Empire Rose did and a choice Laurie Laxon went for with Champagne before her luckless second to Jezabeel in the 1998 Melbourne Cup.
The bounce in Ethereal has Laxon wide-eyed.
"You know," she says in that clipped English that hasn't diminished in a decade and a half in New Zealand, "it's frightening how well this mare has done since she won the Caulfield Cup.
"I thought that race would take something out of her, knock her perhaps.
"It's done exactly the opposite, she's absolutely thriving."
Don't bother talking to Laxon about coincidences either.
Ethereal carried saddle cloth No. 13 to win the Caulfield Cup. She is No. 13 again today and comes out of barrier No. 13.
What does that mean - she'll run 13th?
Two weeks ago Sheila Laxon became only the second woman to win a Caulfield Cup and now has an even bigger bogey to overcome - no woman has trained a Melbourne Cup winner.
Not officially anyway.
In 1938 when New Zealand stayer Catalogue won the Cup, he was prepared by Grannie McDonald but the Australian racing authorities of the time would not allow the horse to run in her name.
Scot Seamer will be having his first Melbourne Cup ride on Ethereal.
But the form he has shown since coming to Melbourne from his macadamian nut farm in northern New South Wales a month ago, to get his eye in for Ethereal, has been outstanding.
Laxon has huge faith in her Australian jockey who three years ago could not even get a half-decent ride at the main meetings in Brisbane where he bases his riding activities.
Ethereal has not raced at the 3200m but Seamer is unconcerned.
"She is amazing how she comes back under you when you want her to relax," he says.
"She's the perfect push button horse.
"I'll be able to put her to sleep for sure.
"I wouldn't want to be on anything else in the race.
"I want the track to be as hard as possible."
By MIKE DILLON
Champion trainer Bart Cummings won't be backing Ethereal to win today's Melbourne Cup.
She doesn't fit his theory.
Cummings has a lot of theories, but No. 1 on the list is that horses must have more than 10,000m of racing in a Melbourne Cup preparation to be able to
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.