Racing: It's A Dundeel to return home

Trainer Murray Baker seemed satisfied. Photo / Thinkstock

Did a wide barrier draw prove too costly or did we see the real It's A Dundeel in Saturday's A$3 million Cox Plate?

The only certainty is we'll never know.

Probably the best guess is that it was a combination of both.

The only comment from James McDonald was: "I was caught three wide and there was nothing I could do about it. It was a tragedy."

No one would argue that.

But even allowing it's almost impossible to sit three wide and feature in a Cox Plate, there was an air of a slightly different It's A Dundeel on Saturday.

Stewards had the entire vetted earlier in the day and how brave a vet would you have needed to be to have said "bugger off" at that point.

They seemed satisfied, and so did trainer Murray Baker.

It was a difficult run to analyse.

It's a Dundeel made a bit of a dab wide at the 500m, but it was understandably short lived.

Momentarily he looked as though he might drop out, but he held his position bravely right to the finish.

As you have to do in all such cases it's "turn the page".

There was talk of the Mackinnon Stakes on Saturday, even the Melbourne Cup, but It's A Dundeel has been booked on a flight home on Thursday and indications yesterday were that he will keep that booking.

Although as people you can't even mention them in the same breath, there were thoughts of Brent Thomson when Chad Schofield guided Shamus Award back into the Moonee Valley weigh-in.

At 17, Thomson was a year younger than Schofield when he won the first of his four Cox Plates in quick succession in the late 1970s, aboard Fury's Order in 1975.

He missed in 1976 when Surround became the only 3-year-old filly to score, however Family Of Man (1977), So Called (1978) and Dulcify (1979) gave him a hat-trick.

It's too early to say whether the South African-born Schofield will achieve the world ranking accorded New Zealander Thomson, but he is certainly headline-making material.