By Michael Lynch
They came, they saw, and, with three major exceptions they completely conquered.
Godolphin's Blue Army might not have quite got up in the Melbourne and Caulfield Cups and the Cox Plate, but they completed their sweep of the big Melbourne spring carnival support races with a unique treble at Sandown on Saturday when Sheikh Mohammed's operation took the three main races with Qewy, Morton's Fork and Beautiful Romance.
Glyn Schofield riding Beautiful Romance (ctr) defeats Damien Oliver riding Almoonqith and Damian Lane riding Big Orange (r) in Race 7, the Zipping Classic, at Sandown.Credit: Getty Images
The trio respectively won the listed Sandown Cup and the group 2 Sandown Guineas and Zipping Classic.
Plenty of big owners have had multiple success in feature races on big race days, but its unlikely that they have done so with three different trainers based in two separate hemispheres with horses ridden by three different jockeys.
But that's exactly how things worked out at Sandown, when Qewy and Kerrin McEvoy scored for Newmarket-based Charlie Appleby and Morton's Fork and Craig Williams got up on the line in the Guineas to put Sydney-based John O'Shea on the scoreboard.
Then Glyn Schofield completed the historic treble in the event run to commemorate Lloyd Williams' great old galloper Zipping, snatching victory in the last stride aboard the Saeed Bin Suroor-trained Beautiful Romance to deny Almoonquith, with another English raider, Michael Bell's Big Orange, third.
Thus the form of the Melbourne Cup was confirmed in tremendous style as Qewy had finished fourth behind Almandin on the first Tuesday in November, while Almoonquith had finished sixth, the mare Beautiful Romance had run seventh and Big Orange tenth.
Schofield said he wasn't quite sure that he had won as both he and Damien Oliver (Almoonquith) threw everything at their mounts in the drive to the line at the end of the 2400 metre Classic.
"I wasn't quite sure, but I knew she was strong at the line. Damien peaked on his run about 150 out, and I could feel my mare really getting going. When I heard Ollie express disappointment, let's say, I thought I probably had won."
"She's really tough, and her Cup run showed when she knuckled over at the start and picked herself off the canvas to run that creditable race, so it was fitting she won today.
"I reckon Ollie got maybe two lengths in front, but he was quite wide, and once they opened up and she found the split. For a horse that stays so well she surged quite strongly and she really kept the gallop up to the line."
Andy Makiv, representing Bin Suroor's stable, was delighted with the spread of success for the stable.
"I am not sure it's been done before. It's a great achievement by all three stables, fantastic for Sheik Mohammed and wonderful for Godolphin.
"She was very brave in the Melbourne Cup. Form from that [event] quite often holds up in this race.
"For Saeed to get the job done today is fantastic, John O'Shea and Charlie Appleby have had stakes winners today. We are thrilled and delighted.
"It looked tight on the line, she certainly dived late. I thought in the straight she was going to run a nice even race, but right on the line she picked up and dived ... it was fantastic."
Godolphin's wonderful spring could, with a little more luck, have been even better: their gelding Hartnell ran second in the Cox Plate and third in the Melbourne Cup, while Appleby's English-trained Scottish ran second in the Caulfield Cup.
* Darren Weir's grand old galloper Lucky Hussler took his career earnings to almost $2 million when he got up close to home under Brad Rawiller to just edge out the $3.20 favourite Illustrious Lad in the group 3 Kevin Heffernan Stakes.
Lucky Hussler, who started at $5.50, was a group 1 winner earlier in his career. He was well beaten in both the Moir Stakes and the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley earlier in the spring.
However he had worked well earlier in the week and given the Weir camp plenty of cause to be optimistic: the trainer removed the horse's customary blinkers and he stormed home showing that he is ready to return to the Gold Coast Magic Millions meeting, where he won last year.