DECIDING which moment constitutes Scotland’s greatest sporting achievement is a debate that keeps publicans in business.
For some it will be Celtic’s Lisbon Lions or Andy Murray winning Wimbledon and leading Great Britain to victory in the Davis Cup. For others Chris Hoy’s six Olympic gold medals in the velodrome will be matched with Sir Jackie Stewart’s three Formula One world championships, Alan Wells winning the 100 metres at the Moscow Olympics or the Scotland rugby union team’s Grand Slam of 1990.
Iain Jardine might take a step back to think of himself in such elite company, but by breakfast time on Tuesday he may well be counted among them if Nakeeta wins the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.
Since “the race that stops a nation” was opened up to inter-national competition in the early 1990s, Ireland (Vintage Crop in 1993 and Media Puzzle in 2002) and France (Americain 2010 and Dunaden 2011) have both won it twice and Japan (Delta Blues 2006) and Germany (Protectionist 2014) once, but British-trained runners have finished second eight times in the last 18 years.
Nakeeta will be the first Scottish-trained runner, having booked his place by winning the Ebor at York in August. Nakeeta looked to be in a hopeless position half way up the straight in the Ebor but Jardine was not giving up.
“Not really, because that’s his style,” Jardine said. “When he’d finished second in the Irish November Handicap last year he’d hit the front too soon. He’s as genuine as they come but his style is to follow one and be produced late. He likes something to aim at.”
The Ebor comes with a cheque for £177,000 which has financed the trip to Australia but while the cost of sending a horse to Australia could be a £50,000 gamble the pay-out would be over £2 million if Nakeeta wins.
Jardine has worked out that with prize-money going down to 10th place, the costs would probably be covered anyway. But this is not about breaking even. It is more about being a breakthrough winner for a man who only started training seven years ago.
“He’s really put us on the map and he’s not a huge outsider as far as we’re concerned,” Jardine said. “His last run was in the richest handicap in Europe and he’s nailed it. So he’s entitled to take his chance.
“His preparation has been very good. He did a bit of work with his jockey, Glyn Schofield, and I was really pleased with the way he worked.
“The work has been done with him and now it’s just a matter of keeping him right for the next few days.
“The Ebor is a great race, it’s a tough race to win and he managed to do that and he’s got some nice form behind him so we go into the race on Tuesday thinking that he’ll run well,” he said. “In the videos that I’ve seen [of the Melbourne Cup], they seem to go very quick up the straight and then start to ride a bit of the race so we’ll take our time a bit and tuck in, without leaving him too much to do.
“You need a bit of luck in running, get the breaks in the race, and if he’s in a reasonable sort of pitch he’ll find a passage through. If I see him with two lengths to make up a furlong-and-a-half out I’ll be thinking perfect. We’ll be riding him for a big finish.”
And that might be the moment for Celtic, Murray et al to make some space for Jardine.
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