KEY POINTS:
MELBOURNE - Kieren Fallon felt the pain and endured it.
Yeats finished a disappointing seventh in the Melbourne Cup and Fallon was analysing the performance long before journalists got to him.
"You're always thinking what might you have done differently," he said.
Fallon did something completely different when
he pressed the button on Yeats to take the lead with a full gallop at the 900m.
It looked a stunningly bold move given that the leader Zabeat in front of him already looked beaten and he had most of the runners in the field off the bridle.
One journalist, being a touch unkind, asked Fallon if he thought he'd given Yeats every chance. He didn't get the answer he had expected.
"I probably should have taken off at the mile rather than the half mile."
Fallon wasn't being smart.
"If I changed anything, that's the only thing I'd change.
"Even so, I thought he was entitled to do better than he did."
Yeats looked magnificent in the parade and, contrary to popular opinion, handled the noise of the crowd well. It certainly wasn't that which beat him.
"We'll be back," said Fallon.
Mandela (9th) was the best of the three New Zealanders ahead of Kerry O'Reilly (11th) and Zabeat, who tailed the field.
In finishing ninth, Mandela just scraped into the A$110,000 ($127,000) payment for runners finishing from sixth to 10th.
"We just missed that cut," said Jim Gibbs, who refused to be disappointed with Kerry O'Reilly.
"All three Kiwis are probably not good enough, but they're the best we've got at the moment and you have to have a go, don't you?"
Zabeat is clearly a long way from his usual self. Like last Saturday, he was off the bit a long way out and yesterday he was beaten the moment Yeats eyeballed him.
Favourite Tawqeet pulled up tender in the foot that he'd pricked on Monday night when he pulled a shoe and stood on a nail, but rider Dwayne Dunn said the horse did not feel awkward in his action during the race.
"The biggest problem was that we found ourselves so far off them going past the winning post the first time and no way to get into the race.
"They were walking up front and we were locked away on the rails.
"Then we got wiped out against the rail before I could pull him out and make a dash at them coming up to the home turn. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong."
English runner Geordieland bled and trainer Jamie Osborne, who had bought the horse in France specifically for the race, looked like he was similarly bleeding internally after the race.
Maybe Better looked a horse for next year in finishing third. He ranged up on the corner, but found the vastly more experienced Japanese horses too strong.
Still, he was the one bright spot in the race for the locals, most of whom were shellshocked by the visitors providing the quinella.
English stayer Land'N Stars put a massive smile on his ex-disc jockey trainer's face.
Jamie Poulter was floating after Land'N Stars picked up A$125,000 for finishing fifth.
"When he finished last in the Caulfield Cup, I said we would be injecting more speed into the horse for this race," he said. "We're very happy."
