Everyone has done it at some point; the moment when the money was as good as in your hands – only for defeat to be claimed from the welcoming jaws of victory.
It happened to Kevin Shea in Dubai on Saturday night. It was to be the moment the South African jockey thought that he would always remember; a victory in the Dubai World Cup.
It will be the moment that he may never forget.
The old theory is that money does not buy happiness - it just makes misery very much more bearable, and Shea left Meydan racecourse with a healthy share of the $2million that Lizard’s Desire banked for finishing second in the first $10million Dubai World Cup.
Turn the clock back to 1981, when $1million was the sort of cheque to still make a hefty thud when it landed on the table, the first running Arlington Million was the richest race ever run and was a blueprint for this World Cup in more ways than one. Then The Bart led down the home straight in Chicago until he was cut down in the very shadow of the winning post by John Henry, who won by a nose.
This time around Gloria de Campeao, under an astute tactical ride by Tiago Pereira, led from the start. Pereira had the rest of the field stacked up like the M25 traffic on a Friday-night rush hour down the back straight. This gave him the choice of when to wind up the pace and the Brazilian rider made his run from about two-and-a-half furlongs out, which left most of the rest of the field flat-footed or getting into each other’s way.
Shea had somehow managed to smuggle Lizard’s Desire off a hopeless rail position to make an attack down the centre of the track. There were just 100 metres left and two lengths to find, but Lizard’s Desire was making ground with every stride. The only one that mattered was at the line and the two horses hit that one as an inseparable blur of colour.
The first reaction came from Shea, who raised his whip in triumph as Pereira made his way off the track, believing that the prize had slipped from his grasp. But the judge ruled otherwise, with Gloria De Campeo winning by a nose from Lizard’s Desire, with Allybar a short-head away in third, to became the first winner of this race not trained in either America or by Godolphin since Singspiel in 1997.
The difference between first and second was about an inch or $2million, depending on how one judges these things. For Pascal Bary, the winning trainer, this was not the time to think about money but a horse who had finished eighth behind Curlin in 2008 and then second to Well Armed at Nad Al Sheba 12 months ago, but finally came good. “He is so wonderful a horse because he always tries,” he said. “The other horse finished so fast I wasn’t sure if we had won. Just now I don’t speak money – I just speak horses – the money will come later.”
When Shea finally spoke it was like a man coming to terms with the highs and lows of having just conquered Everest - and then fallen off the peak while celebrating. “It’s a very bitter pill to swallow,” he said “but I’ve got to swallow it. When I looked up it was just after the line and I was in front and I thought I’d got it. It’s hard to take.”
A few yards away, but another continent in terms of raw emotions, Pereira said: “I thought I’d won, but as we passed the post, I looked across and the second jockey was celebrating so I thought I’d keep quiet and wait for the result. This is all just a dream.”
Shea will probably still be thinking that it is just one long nightmare.
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