“Lunatic asylum”: Tactics of Cox Plate slammed by prominent owner

Prominent owner John O’Neill has slammed the rides of Pride Of Jenni and Evaporate in Saturday’s Cox Plate which was sensationally won by Via Sistina who set a new track record.

As she has been known to do in her career to date, the Ciaron Maher-trained mare Pride Of Jenni, ridden by Declan Bates, made a point of setting a cracking pace in the Group 1 weight-for-age classic at Moonee Valley.

Jenni jumped from barrier 7 and Bates dug her up so she could lead, but there was the presence of Royal Patronage and Micky Dee on her inside, while race favourite Prognosis and Damian Lane were also handy.

The other point of contention was what international jockey Karis Teetan, who flew in from Hong Kong for three rides, did on Lindsay Park’s three-year-old Evaporate.

The Caulfield Guineas place-getter jumped awkwardly before knuckling soon after, but Teetan still squeezed him up to get involved in the hectic speed battle.

In the eyes of O’Neill it was a farcically-run race which destroyed the chances of many, describing it as a “lunatic asylum”.

“I’ve got an interesting view, and obviously we all have opinions, but I just reckon the race was a farce,” O’Neill said on SEN’s Monday Means Test.

“I just cannot believe that a three-year-old horse (Evaporate) that just run third in a Guineas, that misses the start, gets kicked in the guts and pushed forward to sit three and four deep in the fastest-run Cox Plate we’ve ever seen, in a race that is 12 lengths better than the best horse I’ve ever seen.

“And here he is up pushing three and four deep with Declan Bates around the outside too, a pumpkin on his head, a pumpkin on K.Teetan’s head - I wish he had have stayed in Hong Kong.

“‘Frosty’ (Lane) seriously should have been back where Via Sistina was, they went that hard. And if Frosty is back sitting where that horse is you’ve got two world-class horses in Via Sistina and Prognosis swooping over a farcical lead pace which was absolutely lunatic asylum.

“Now sure, if that’s the way that Jenni wants to race then that’s fine, and I think ‘Dec’ (Bates) had to work harder than what he wanted to with the other horses driving him mad.”

O’Neill felt for Evaporate who endured a torrid run before finishing last, 17.5 lengths off the winner, with Pride Of Jenni knocking up top finish second last.

“I hate to say this, but you’ve got a beautiful three-year-old in Evaporate that’s completely destroyed. It will never come back and I hope it does for the owners, but how you can sit three and four deep on a farcical pace like that is just ridiculous,” he continued.

“We already know that Mr Brightside is not a 2000m horse, so he ran huge, and then Broadsiding out the back with the fastest race we’ve ever seen flashed home and ran third. It ran terrific, the rest of them didn’t matter.

“I just thought it was a ridiculous process. James (McDonald) was sitting back seven or eight lengths, one off the fence, he could have ridden it (Via Sistina) side-saddle at the 200m and just waved to the crowd because he was laughing that much as he went past them at the school. It was like the Giggle Palace at Luna Park.

“It was a farcical race. Well done, champion horse, second horse is a freak. How Prognosis hung on and ran second running sectionals the way it did, it would win any race in the world. It’s a star.”

Trainer Wayne Hawkes agreed with O’Neill’s sentiments, imploring the tactics on Pride Of Jenni to be changed.

“That’s the best one minute I’ve ever heard you speak,” Hawkes said.

“He’s actually nailed it. There were so many slaughter jobs, but we don’t like to talk about the elephants in the room. If that was a normal Saturday, everyone would be going off their brains.

“They’ve got to stop riding Jenni like that. You don’t stay there forever. She does not need to be that far in front, she does not need to be driving that hard. I know she did it that day in the Queen Elizabeth and it was the greatest race that we saw, there’s no doubt about that.”

O”Neill chimed in with a music reference with his conclusion: “Jenni is Shirley Bassey.

“She can’t scream in a rock concert every week non-stop, back on, back on, because eventually you lose your voice.

“She is Shirley Bassey, there’s no doubt she’s incredible…

“But just a farcical ride.”