A minor miracle away from the glory of a Cup run
IT STARTED as a $600 joke, but incredibly, little known and even less regarded galloper Gothic Crown is just one admittedly giant step away from taking his place in the Melbourne Cup field among some of the world's top stayers.
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IT STARTED as a $600 joke, but incredibly, little known and even less regarded galloper Gothic Crown is just one admittedly giant step away from taking his place in the Melbourne Cup field among some of the world's top stayers.Five days out from the Melbourne Cup, his novice trainer Todd Balfour is starting to feel the nerves. The newcomer to training is a small miracle away from having a Melbourne Cup runner.Gothic Crown is still among the 47 acceptors for the Melbourne Cup and will take his place in the Lexus Stakes on Saturday, a race that qualifies the winner for the big one on Tuesday.Gothic Crown's credentials for such an upset are almost non-existent but as Balfour pointed out, there are now only 46 horses with better prospects. "We nominated him as a joke; just for the dream," the 30-year-old said this week."I was quite embarrassed to put him among the best horses in Australia, but I was trying to get him into a race at Cranbourne [when Cup entries were due] and I thought that a Melbourne Cup nomination might look good next to his name."At the close of nominations in August, Balfour, who now trains seven unheralded horses at Cranbourne, was just a few weeks into his training career. Three months earlier, the former jumps jockey purchased the moderately performed seven-year-old for $5000, on behalf of owner Arnold Kelsey, with an eye to training him as a jumps horse.Then came the idea to nominate for the 150th Melbourne Cup. He was one of 253 horses first entered for the race on August 1 and was there among the 151 when the first declaration payment of $990 was due on September 7.After paying a further $1540 on October 5 to keep the dream alive, another $3520 was required on Monday to go into the final stage. "We'd gone that far, we just thought why not? Arnold is an owner that was prepared to put up the money and I was happy to go along with him."Balfour's story is further proof that everyone is equal on the racetrack. If his galloper a $501 Cup outsider can cause one of racing's great boilovers and win Saturday's Lexus Stakes at Flemington at $201, Balfour and Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed will have one thing in common. They will both have one Melbourne Cup runner.Gothic Crown has one thing in his favour. He won his latest race a lowly event at Pakenham last Monday.
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