Derby

What about in the middle? What was one of the big days when you've gone over there and ridden a huge Breeders' Cup winner?

Well, of course, obviously, Kentucky Derby was always Derby, as they call it.

It's always out of the question because it always lands the same days as the 2000 Guineas, our first classic.

So I knew from the beginning I was never going to...

And actually, in fairness, I managed to ride it twice.

But in my early days, I never thought that I'd be in a position to put myself forward to Kentucky Derby or Triple Crown.

But obviously, our biggest thing was in the mid-80s, the British Cup was invented and it gave an opportunity to Europeans.

to go to America and compete with each other.

Well, I think you basically pick up and drop the Moonee Valley Racing Club at Flemington, and Flemington being such a big venue, it's going to look a little bit more bare bones, isn't it? 34,000 strong out there.

It's going to look vastly different to Derby Day, where they'll be getting 80-plus this week.

Yeah.

I thought the crowd was terrific.

We had Bondiaga get beaten ahead here in a derby.

Shamrock had won an AJC derby.

Russian Camelot... won a South Australian Derby.

I don't think he's in their grade, or not yet, but he's certainly a promising horse that's very lightly raced.

We're going to be dealing with all the stuff that happened in the last weekend.

And then we're going to hook into Derby Day coming up and the Melbourne Cup.

I think we'll get through some of these Melbourne Cup thoughts while we're at it, but we better bring the boss in.

Tara Madgwick, how are you this week?

Shocking.

Finds a line.

And she won the old, she won that race, which used to be the Lexus on Derby Day that they moved into September, but you still get into the Melbourne Cup if you win it.

So she's won it and got the run and can now, they can just give her the program they want, I guess.

Oh, there was a lot to like there in that race.

And by the way, I'm happy to be at Kingland at the Breeders' Cup and talking Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks.

That makes my heart happy because you know where my mind always ends up going to is to that.

But yeah, she looked really good in that performance yesterday.

But Stotch is a really nice horse.

And Brendan Walsh, I was talking with him in the paddock earlier in the day, and he was really, really high on him.

He's a horse that he really thinks is going to be one of his, you know, leading three-year-olds and potential Kentucky Derby contender.

And he gave Jess everything that he could handle, and Jess turned him away.

But if I was a betting man, I'd say one or two won't pass the CT scan.

Gareth, what about Derby Day on Saturday? As you'd be well aware, in the world of footy, every year we talk about the grand final starting time and it never changed.

It feels like in racing that every year we talk about this will be the last year that the Derby's run over 2,500 metres.

It'll go back to 2,000.

But just reading a few pieces today, is there actually a decent chance that this time next year it will be over the 2,000?

They've got a spring champion stakes.

If they want to go to 2,000, go to that race.

You've got two horses that are backing up from the spring champion stakes to the Victoria Derby.