Nicholas Hall has ridden Fawkner to a sensational 1.5 length victory to claim the 2013 Caulfield Cup for Team Williams. Star international Group 1 winner and $10 Melbourne Cup hope Dandino swooped around the field late to claim second in a photo finish from last years VRC Oaks winner Dear Demi. $4.8 favourite Hawkspur finished a disappointing 7th after settling at the back of the field and running on late.
As the front-runners hustled and bustled for positions out front, Hall found a spot on the rails for Fawkner, further back than expected on most speedmaps. Hall gave Fawkner a very relaxed and patient ride for the majority of the race and when Glen Boss riding Silent Achiever outside of Fawkner made his move around runners, Hall followed to sit four-wide around the turn. Coming into the straight, Fawkner seemed to be boxed in from all sides with no run in sight until like magic a gap appeared and Hall rode Fawkner straight through and onto victory.
While our racing analyst did have Fawkner on top in the race, hindsight is always a valuable thing. In this instance, the writing was on the wall that Fawkner was primed to win when Team Williams sacrificed genuine Caulfield Cup chances to allow their runner, who was lower down in the ballot, a guaranteed run.
After the race, Nick Williams said that after Fawkner’s photo finish second to Happy Trails in the Emirates last spring, Team Williams had agreed to sell Fawkner, but the buyer didn’t pay up. After the non-payment, his father Lloyd expressed to Nick that he was happy that the buyer pulled out and declared that Fawkner would win the 2013 Caulfield Cup.
Fawkner was given three lead up runs into the Caulfield Cup with his best run coming the previous start in the Turnbull Stakes, running an impressive third behind Happy Trails and Puissance De Lune. What made the run so strong was that he and Puissance De Lune were the only two runners to put on strong early sectionals (almost identical) to finish in the top nine runners of the race (2nd and 3rd).
Team Williams confirmed today that the Melbourne Cup is back on the radar for Fawkner who should have no problems running out the distance based on the Caulfield Cup run. Fawkner was penalised 1.5kg for the Caulfield Cup win and will go around off 54.5kg if Team Williams do give him a run. Fawkner is currently $25 to win the Melbourne Cup with Betfair. Fawkner was a $600-1 chance with Sportsbet to claim the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double before the race on Saturday.
