Viewed wins the 2008 Melbourne Cup

November 4, 2008

Bart Cummings wins his 12th Melbourne Cup with Viewed ridden by Blake Shin. Bauer, ridden by C W Brown, was second after the photo finish, with C’est La Guerre ridden by B Prebble coming third. Honolulu was the last placed horse.

Cummings began training in 1953. His first Cup win was with Light Fingers in 1965. This win is his 250th group one win.

Today's 148th Melbourne Cup field of 24 was reduced after the scratchings of Yellowstone and Zarita, withdrawn by its trainer Pat Hyland on Monday due to a respiratory infection. The English horse Yellowstone was scratched later in the day by a veterinarian after failing to recover from a hip injury sustained last week.

The race began with Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien's 3 horses Septimus (an early race favourite and $7 chance), Honolulu, and Alessandro Volta setting a cracking pace for a large part of the race before fading badly at the turn into the straight to occupy 3 of the last 5 places. From there Viewed stormed clear before Bauer pulled it back in the last 50 yards to go down by a nose, in one of the closest finishes to a Melbourne Cup in the race's history.

The race was watch by an estimated 105,000 at Flemington Racecourse with many more across the country stopping to watch the race on television.