Sydney Cup to Etah James

Three weeks ago, Kiwi horseman Mark Lupton watched his Sydney Cup dreams with Etah James disappear.

The veteran staying mare had been booked to fly from Auckland to Sydney for the A$1 million race but her plane was cancelled. With Covid19 restrictions increasing by the day, Lupton resigned himself to the fact his window of opportunity was gone. Or so it seemed.

“We were talking about retiring her and then the phone rang; it was New Zealand Bloodstock Airfreight, and they said, ‘we have a plane going to Sydney in a few hours if you can make it’,” says Lupton.

“She got there in time and it was the last horse flight out of the country on March 17 before the lockdown.”

Yesterday at Randwick, that dash from Matamata paid the greatest dividend of Etah James’ career when she held out The Chosen One for a Kiwi quinella in the 3200m slog of the Cup.

As she has done much of her life, Etah James made up for what she lacks in speed with courage, and she trucked into the race at the 600m as the favourites started to feel the effects of 3200m on a heavy8 track.

She hit the lead at the 300m, and while The Chosen One was brave, he never really looked likely to catch her, as Etah James became the most unlikely of racing millionaires.

“Sometimes in racing, you have bad luck, less often, you have good luck, and getting her on that last flight out has proved to be huge for us,” said Lupton.

Etah James’ brave win was the fifth Group 1 victory for New Zealand in the six weeks of the Sydney carnival but the very heavy track played against most of the other Kiwi stars yesterday.

Te Akau Shark and Melody Belle both struggled to show their absolute best in the Queen Elizabeth won by English raider Addeybb, but former New Zealand mare Verry Elleegant was an outstanding second.

And earlier in the day, Probabeel never looked at home in the conditions in the ATC Oaks, struggling home in eighth.