Updated ,first published
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The Ciaron Maher-trained Point Of Law has won the 166th running of the Melbourne Cup, storming home under sunny skies at Flemington.
Royal Supremacy took a huge lead early but was swamped on the straight. Two other Maher runners, Zahrann and Juja Kibo, took out the minor placings in a photo finish. Sons And Lovers finished fourth.
Point of Law, ridden by jockey Ethan Brown in the horse’s sixth start, was one of seven runners in the Cup trained by Maher.
The horse, which was bought from King Charles, had a huge win in the Geelong Cup less than a fortnight ago.
It’s unusual for such an inexperienced horse to contest the Melbourne Cup. Tiger Moth is the only horse since 1993 to have had fewer starts before qualifying for the great race.
The win is Maher’s second Melbourne Cup triumph, which the 45-year-old adds to a Cox Plate and two Caulfield Cups.
He is the first trainer to trifecta the Melbourne Cup.
“What a ride in the short amount of time we’ve been on already,” Maher said at the presentation.
“Ethan Brown – [he’s] just a good mate, and you could just see how dedicated he was this year. He always is, but he was dialled in, and that was a beautiful exhibition of how to ride a horse in a Melbourne Cup.”
The Chris Waller-trained Asterix was scratched on Tuesday morning after stewards discovered that Waller’s stable staff had mistakenly applied a commonly used anti-inflammatory oil, penetrene, to the horse’s front legs while applying bandages.
The liniment is not performance-enhancing, but all race-day treatments are banned under the rules of racing.
Harry Coffey took his place aboard Shockletz, despite having had surgery on Sunday to a fractured collarbone he suffered in a race fall on Derby day.
More to come
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