Racing: Flight miracle sees New Zealand mare Etah James capture A$1 million Sydney Cup

Etah James (Glen Boss) leads home a New Zealand quinella over The Chosen One in the A$1 million Sydney Cup on Saturday. Photo / Bradley Photos

Three weeks ago Kiwi horseman Mark Lupton watched his dream of Sydney Cup glory with Etah James disappear.

Or so it seemed.

The veteran staying mare had been booked to fly from Auckland to Sydney for the A$1 million race but her plane was cancelled. With Covid-19 restrictions increasing by the day, Lupton resigned himself to the fact his window of opportunity had closed.

"We were talking about retiring her and then the phone rang, it was New Zealand Bloodstock Airfreight and they said we have a plane going to Sydney in a few hours if you can make it," says Lupton.

"She got there in time and it was the last horse flight out of the country on March 17 before the lockdown."

Today at Randwick that dash from Matamata paid the greatest dividend of Etah James's career when she held out The Chosen One for a Kiwi quinella in the 3200m slog of the Cup.

As she has done much of her life Etah James made up for what she lacks in speed with courage and she trucked into the race at the 600m as the favourites started to feel the effects of 3200m on a heavy8 track.

She hit the lead at the 300m and while The Chosen One was brave he never really looked likely to catch her as Etah James became the most unlikely of racing millionaires.

"Sometimes in racing you have bad luck, less often you have good luck and getting her on that last flight out has proved to be huge for us," says Lupton.

He owns a third of the mare with his wife Catherine and they did the early work on her before she started her career in Australia with Matt Cumani.

"Matt deserves a lot of the credit for what this mare has achieved and she initially would have gone back to him in Victoria for this campaign but because this race was in Sydney she went to Ciaron (Maher) and David (Eustace).

"So a lot of people have been involved in getting her to today. We race her with two good guys we have raced horses with for 15 years in Terry Reid, who lives in Sydney, and Gary Howes who lives in London."

While Etah James could easily have been letting down into retirement in a Matamata paddock tonight instead of wearing the Sydney Cup runner's rug, those retirement plans may now be shelved in lieu of an even greater target.

"I think this win will qualify her for a Melbourne Cup and with the chance there could be less or even no European horses in it this year, that might be worth aiming at," says Lupton, who says he won't train again now Etah James has left his small stable.

"I was winding down anyway so her younger brothers and sisters are already being trained by Karen Fursdon and Daniel Miller while we have a full brother just being weaned off the mare now.

"We are opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate tonight but once things settle down and we can get out and about again we will try and have a proper party, once everybody is allowed."

Etah James' brave win was the fifth Group 1 win for New Zealand in the six weeks of the Sydney carnival, but the very heavy track played against most of the other Kiwi stars today.

Te Akau Shark and Melody Belle both struggled to show their absolute best in the Queen Elizabeth won by English raider Addeybb, but former New Zealand mare Verry Elleegant was an outstanding second.

And earlier in the day Probabeel never looked at home in the conditions in the ATC Oaks, struggling in eighth.