Preferment wins Australian Cup on protest
Chris Waller has trained his 12th Group One winner for the season with Preferment winning the Australian Cup on protest at Flemington.
Preferment ($7) finished a short half-head behind Awesome Rock as the field crossed the line in the weight-for-age race on Saturday.
But jockey Hugh Bowman claimed Awesome Rock ($26) had taken his mount’s rightful running over the final 400m and he fired in a protest against Stephen Baster.
“My horse is entitled to a straight run to the line,” Bowman said in the protest hearing.
“If I was afforded a straight run, which I’m entitled to, no question in my mind he wins the race – and by a significant margin.”
Chief steward Terry Bailey agreed, saying there was one part of the run home from the 400m that supported Bowman’s case.
“Our problem is between the 300 metres and the 200 metres,” Bailey told Bowman.
“It’s here Stephen Baster shifts out several horses and I believe you had no other option to go where Stephen Baster’s mount was heading.
“If this didn’t happen, Preferment would have been first past the post.”
Preferment has now won three Group One races at Flemington after claiming the 2014 Victoria Derby and last year’s Turnbull Stakes.
Rising Romance ($11) took the minor placing, 1-1/4 lengths away.
Preferment ran in last year’s Melbourne Cup as well as the Hong Kong Vase and the four-year-old returned to racing in Sydney and ran a promising race when fourth to stablemate Winx in the Chipping Norton Stakes.
But Waller said the Australian Cup was always a target because of Preferment’s liking for Flemington.