We drew barrier 7, which was not the worst but we would have preferred one closer to the inside. We had the local runners covered, but the handicapper had done thrown us a wobbly with the city winner Sir Donald who had one the cup the year before. We shook our heads when the weights came out and wondered at why they had taken such an illogical stance for such an important local event. They gave him 55kg and coming off an Ascot win as a lead-up, just 2kg above Tapdog who was coming through from a cls 5 win. We figured he was 2kg under weighted.
All we could do was hope he had the class to rise above the disadvantage. Clive had him picture perfect as he always did. We decided to have a good bet on him and I recall my sister Suzanne telling me by phone before the race that he was a certainty. The up and coming 4yo, with no weight on his back and coming through big victories from his last
2 races. Well, we backed him that way and then crossed fingers until we would find out. I was on my way back from watching the US Masters in Augusta, and we'd worked out that I'd be about 2 hours from landing back into Paris. As always, I was listening in via dad's telephone. What an excitement! I could barely here the race but can still recall dad's comments as they rounded the corner. Dog had jumped well and settled into a lovely position just off the pace again. He was traveling very well coming to the corner and Chris moved on him early so he swept to the lead with Sir Donald mounting his challenge. As they rounded i heard dad say "the bloody two kilos" and could only guess (I sitting in seat 4B, dead silence around me, not a sole awake on the flight) that Sir Donald had loomed over top....but NO! The Dog dug deep and fought out for a brilliant win.It brought up his 4th win, 3 on the trot and a Cup race in only his 7th race start. We were over the moon, and this was my most thrilling moment in racing.
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