Racing: Beaten favourite earns praise from jockey

Rider Noel Harris has waited 15 years for a two-miler you could talk about in the same sentence as Castletown.

Yesterday, despite failing to carry his army of fans through in the $1 million Auckland Cup at Ellerslie, he thinks he may have found that horse in Six O'Clock News.

In a muddling-run race, Harris and the giant-strider never looked like threatening upset winner Spin Around, five lengths adrift in fifth place.

But after working hard throughout the marathon journey, Harris was stunned that he even weighed in.

"There's been a big wrap on this horse since the Derby and now I can see why," said Harris who partnered Castletown to a slew of 3200m scalps in the early 1990s.

"Once he furnishes and strengthens I've got no doubt he's going to win some good two mile [3200m} races."

When the field dawdled in the early stages, Harris's first thought was, "here we go again".

Harris knew he had to have a decent clip for the impressive winner of the City of Auckland Cup (2400m) on New Year's Day to show his best.

But even at the 700m, as he started to slide forward three wide, he felt he still might have enough horsepower under him.

"But when I straightened up he started gawking and I had my doubts straight away.

"It was a huge run to run fifth - any other horse wouldn't have weighed in with a run like that."

Second favourite Capecover finished a further two lengths back in ninth place, his Australian-based rider Michelle Payne also blaming the lack of early speed.

Payne said the back-runner simply had too much ground to make up as they quickened to run 34.2s for the final 600m.

"We were always going to go back from the barrier and that's his racing pattern anyway," said Payne.

"We didn't want to change that just because it was a million-dollar race. We decided to go back and hope there was a bit of speed on.

"Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We were going okay to the winning post the first time, then they slammed the brakes on.

"When they sprinted we were left flat-footed and couldn't run them down."

Rider Mark Sweeney was happy with the run he got with sentimental race favourite Prize Lady, who finished just head of Capecover in eighth spot.

But she never gave him much hope of a hat-trick of Cup wins in the straight.

"She just couldn't sprint with them on this type of ground," Sweeney said.

Runner-up Michael Coleman was rapt with Mr Tipsy's effort after the emerging staying star was also inconvenienced by the slow pace.

"We were flushed out three wide in the back straight so I decided to slide forward which probably helped us," said Coleman.

"The winner had us covered pretty quickly, but he stuck on well. He's come a long way in a short time."

The finish was marred by a home-straight fall when an inside movement sent Mark Du Plessis and Casa De Campo crashing out of contention with about 250m to run.

A shaken Du Plessis was able to walk back to scale nursing cuts and bruises, still unsure exactly what happened.

"We were going all right at that stage; I gave him one hit and we just went down," said Du Plessis.