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Cup day glee for Robbie G

By Brad Kingsbury
LEADING Cranbourne trainer Robbie Griffiths flew his home-town flag on Melbourne Cup day when his speedster Cocinero dismissed a classy field to win the $100,000 Redbook Carpets Plate.
The Melbourne Cup program had been dominated by a combination of interstate and international raiders, but Griffiths and locally based jockey Peter Mertens combined to make their mark with a dominant win in the 1200-metre sprint down the Flemington straight.
After the race, Griffiths spoke of his pride of representing the strong and close-knit Cranbourne racing fraternity on the biggest day of racing in the state.
“It’s fantastic for the local community,” he said.
“To win a race on cup week is an amazing thing and a great feeling. It’s very, very hard to do.
“We wanted to win a race on this week and he was the right horse for this type of event.
“The writing was on the wall after his great run at Caulfield (a fortnight ago) and he had trained on very well. My only concern was that he might get a bit of anxiety with the big crowd but it all worked out well,” Griffiths said.
“Peter rode the horse beautifully. I just said ride him where he’s happy, and he did just that and won.”
Griffiths thanked Cocinero’s owners, including Berwick couple Paul and Simone Damjanovic, for their support, as did Mertens, who was thrilled to ride a winner in his first ride of the day.
The trainer said Cocinero would now head to the Kevin Heffernan weight-for-age race at Sandown on the 25 November.
While the Melbourne Cup was dominated by Japanese horses Delta Blues and Pop Rock, it was also the scene of triumph for Berwick jockey Noel Callow, who achieved a long-held ambition by having his first ride in the race that stops a nation.
Callow, who usually rides no lighter than 55 kilograms, had to punish his body to get down to his mount Short Pause’s weight of 53.5 kilograms, a weight that he has not ridden at for many years.
Callow finished 14th on the $200 cup chance but had some joy when he scored a win on Creek Side in the final race of the day and a second placing on Monahan Tweed in the ninth race.
The day also saw some drama for Callow when his race five mount Heresay was relegated from second to fifth place on protest, and an inquiry into race interference was adjourned until today (Thursday).
Cranbourne jockey Mark Flaherty was forced to forego his ride on Gallantree in the final race after suffering a cut face and bruising when his race one mount, Alfajiri, became fractious and struck him in the starting barriers.
He completed the ride on the unplaced filly, trained by his partner Nikki Burke.
Several other Cranbourne trainers, including Rod Douglas, Colin Alderson, Bevan Laming, Dale Short, Eric Bromfield, Grant Dalziel, Damien Williams and Dianne Wynne, saddled horses on the 10-race Melbourne Cup program, but the only other place-getter was Greg Eurell, whose second starter Liger grabbed second place on protest in the Schweppes 1000-metre sprint.